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UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 

IN 

AMERICAN    ARCHAEOLOGY   AND    ETHNOLOGY 

Vol.  12,  No.  2,  pp.  31-69  June  15,  1916 


CALIFORNIA    PLACE    NAMES    OF 
INDIAN    ORIGIN 


A.  L.  KROEBER 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  PRESS 
BERKELEY 


UNIVESSITY  OF  OALIFOBNIA  PUBLICATIONS 
DEPABTMENT  OF  ANTHBOPOLOQY 

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ology, Education,  Modem  Philology,  Philosophy,  and  Semitic  Philology,  Otto  Harrassowitx, 
Leipzig.  For  the  series  in  Botany,  Geology,  Pathology,  Physiology,  Zoology  and  also  Amer- 
ican Archaeology  and  Ethnology,  E.  Friedlaender  &  Sohn,  Berlin. 

AMEBICAN  AECHAEOLOGY  AND  ETHNOLOGY.— A.  L.  Kroeber,  Editor.  Prices, 
Volume  1,  $4.25;  Volumes  2  to  10,  inclusive,  $3.50  each;  Volume  11  and  following, 
$5.00  each. 

Cited  as  Univ.  Calif.  Publ,  Am.  Arch.  Ethn.  Price 

Vol.  1.      1.  Life  and  Culture  of  the  Hupa,  by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.    Pp.  1-88; 

plates  1-SO.    September,  1903  .„ *l-26 

2.  Hupa  Texts,  by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.    Pp.  89-368.    March,  1904 _.    3.00 

Index,  pp.  369-378. 
Vol  2       1.  The  Exploration  of  the  Potter  Creek  Cave,  by  WlUiam  J.  Sinclair. 

Pp.  1-27;  plates  1-14.    April,  1904  *0 

2.  The  Languages  of  the  Coast  of  California  South  of  San  Francisco,  by 

A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  29-80,  with  a  map.    June,  1904 60 

3.  Types  of  Indian  Culture  in  California,  by  A.  L.  Bioeber.    Pp.  81-103. 

June,  1904  ^ ■ - ■-■    - -  -"• 

4.  Basket  Designs  of  the  Indians  of  Northwestern  California,  by  A.  L. 

Kroeber.    Pp.  105-164;  plates  15-21.    January,  1905  .— .76 

5.  The  Yokuts  Language  of  South  Central  California,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber. 

Pp.  165-377.     January,  1907  _ - 2.26 

Index,  pp.  379-392. 
Vol.  8.  The  Morphology  of  the  Hupa  Language,  by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard. 

344  pp.    June,  1905  .- - - 8JS0 

Vol.  4.      1.  The  Earliest  Historical  Eolations  between  Mexico  and  Japan,  from 

original  documents  preserved  in  Spain  and  Japan,  by  Zelia  Nuttall. 

Pp.  1-47.    April,  1906  - - -•-       ^^ 

2.  Contribution  to  the  Physical  Anthropology  of  California,  based  on  col- 

lections in  the  Department  of  Anthropology  of  the  University  of 
CaUfomia,  and  in  the  U.  S.  National  Museum,  by  Ales  Hrdlicka. 
Pp.  49-64,  with  5  tables;  plates  1-10,  and  map.    June,  1906 —      .76 

3.  The  Shoshonean  Dialects  of  CaUfomia,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  65-166. 

February,  1907 --- -• -"■    ■^•°° 

4.  Indian  Myths  from  South  Central  California,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp. 

167-250.     May,  1907  _-._.™      .70 

6.  The  Washo  Language  of  East  Central  California  and  Nevada,  by  A.  L. 

Kroeber.    Pp.  251-318.    September,  1907  - - 76 

6.  The  EeUgion  of  the  Indians  of  California,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  319- 

356.    September,  1907  - -"^ 

Index,  pp.  357-374.  .,_.^     ,  «       a 

Vol  5.      1.  The  Phonology  of  the  Hupa  Language;  Part  I,  The  Individual  Sounds, 

by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.    Pp.  1-20,  plates  1-8.    March,  1907 S6 

2.  Navaho  Myths,  Prayers  and  Songs,  with  Texts  and  Translations,  by 

Washington  Matthews,  edited  by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.    Pp.  21-63. 

September.  1907 -- ■••-"■ — " —      ""^ 

8.  Kato  Texts,  by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.    Pp.  65-238,  plate  9.    December, 

1909  '•"*' 

4.  The  Material  Ouitore"  of  the  Klamath  Lake  and  Modoc  Indians  of 

Northeastern  CaUfomia  and  Southern  Oregon,  by  8.  A.  Barrett. 
Pp.  239-292,  plates  10-25.    June,  1910 ™~~.. "  "•"  oq' 

5.  The  Chimarlko  Indians  and  Language,  by  Eoland  B.  Dixon.    Pp.  293- 

380.    August,  1910  ■^•"" 

Index,  pp.  381-384.  ^  ^^         .      _ 

Vol.  6.      1.  The  Ethno-Geography  of  the  Pomo  and  Neighboring  In^ans,  by  Sam- 

uel  Alfred  Barrett.    Pp.  1-332,  maps  1-2.    February,  1908  .-.^.    8.2B 

2.  The  Geography  and  Dialects  of  the  Miwok  Indians,  by  Samuel  Alfred 

Barrett.    Pp.  333-368,  map  8.  ,    «  _,        v    *v.  -niri^^v 

8   On  the  Evidence  of  the  Occupation  of  Certain  Eegions  by  the  MiwoK 

Indians,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  369-380.    Nos.  2  and  3  in  ome  cover. 

Febmary,  1908  - 

Index,  pp.  381-400. 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 

IN 

AMERICAN    ARCHAEOLOGY   AND    ETHNOLOGY 

Vol.  12,  No.  2,  pp.  31-69  June  15,  1916 


CALIFORNIA  PLACE  NAMES  OF 
INDIAN  ORIGIN 

BY 
A.  L.  KEOEBER 


The  origin  of  many  place-names  in  California  which  are  of  Indian 
derivation  is  very  imperfectly  known,  and  has  often  been  thoroughly 
misunderstood.  There  is  no  subject  of  information  in  which  rumor 
and  uncritical  tradition  hold  fuller  sway  than  in  this  field.  The  best 
literature  dealing  with  the  topic — and  it  is  one  of  widespread  interest 
— contains  more  errors  than  truths.  The  present  compilation,  in  spite 
of  probably  embodying  numerous  misunderstandings  and  offering 
only  doubt  or  ignorance  on  other  points,  is  at  least  an  attempt  to 
approach  the  inquiry  critically.  It  is  based  on  fifteen  years  of 
acquaintance,  from  the  anthropological  side,  with  most  of  the  Indian 
tribes  of  the  state.  In  the  course  of  the  studies  made  in  this  period, 
geographical  and  linguistic  data  were  accumulated,  which,  while  not 
gathered  for  the  present  purpose,  serve  to  illuminate,  even  though 
often  only  negatively,  the  origin  and  meaning  of  many  place-names 
adopted  or  reputed  to  have  been  taken  from  the  natives.  Authorities 
have  been  cited  where  they  were  available  and  known.  If  they  are  not 
given  in  more  cases,  it  is  because  unpublished  notes  of  the  writer  are 
in  all  such  instances  the  source  of  information. 

The  present  state  of  knowledge  as  to  place-names  derived  from  the 
Indians  is  illustrated  by  the  following  example.  There  are  nine 
counties  in  California,  Colusa,  Modoc,  Mono,  Napa,  Shasta,  Tehama, 
Tuolumne,  Yolo,  and  Yuba,  whose  names  are  demonstrably  or  almost 
demonstrably  of  Indian  origin,  and  two  others,  Inyo  and  Siskiyou, 
that  presumably  are  also  Indian.  Of  these  eleven,  Maslin  in  his  of- 
ficially authorized  list,  cited  below,  gives  two.  Mono  and  Yuba,  as  being 
Spanish ;  he  adds  Solano  and  Marin,  of  which  the  first  is  certainly  and 


32  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

the  latter  probably  Spanish,  as  being  Indian ;  and  the  only  etymologies 
which  he  mentions — those  for  Modoc,  Napa,  Shasta,  Tuolumne,  and 
Yolo — are  all  either  positively  erroneous  or  unverified.  The  lists  by 
other  authors,  which  include  the  names  of  less  widely  known  locali- 
ties, are  as  a  rule  even  more  unreliable.  The  prevalent  inclination  has 
been  to  base  explanations  of  place-names  of  Indian  origin  not  on 
knowledge,  or  where  certainty  is  unattainable  on  an  effort  at  investi- 
gation, but  on  vague  though  positively  stated  conjectures  of  what  such 
names  might  have  meant,  or  on  naive  fancies  of  what  would  have  been 
picturesque  and  romantic  designations  if  the  unromantic  Indian  had 
used  them.  It  is  therefore  a  genuine  pleasure  to  mention  one  notable 
and  recent  exception,  the  Spanish  and  Indian  Place  Names  of  Cali- 
fornia of  Nellie  Van  de  Grift  Sanchez,  a  really  valuable  work  which 
unites  honest  endeavor  and  historical  discriniination  with  taste  and 
pleasing  presentation.^ 

To  avoid  an  array  of  foot-notes,  most  references  have  been  cited 
in  the  text  in  a  simplified  form,  which  will  be  clear  upon  consultation 
of  the  following  list. 

Maslin:  Prentiss  Maslin.  I  have  not  seen  this  work,  printed  for  or  by  the 
State  of  California,  in  the  original.  It  may  be  more  accessible  to  most  readers 
as  reprinted  as  an  appendix  to  John  S.  McGroarty's  California,  1911,  pages  311 
and  following.  As  the  names  follow  one  another  in  alphabetical  order,  page 
references  are  unnecessary. 

Gannett:  Henry  Gannett,  "The  Origin  of  Certain  Place-Names  in  the 
United  States."  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  Bulletin  197,  1902.  As  this  is  also 
an  alphabetic  list,  page  references  have  again  been  omitted. 

Bailey:  G.  E.  Bailey,  "History  and  Origin  of  California  Names  and 
Places,"  in  several  instalments  (the  pages  indicated  in  the  table  of  contents 
for  the  volume  are  in  part  erroneous),  in  volume  44  of  the  Overland  Monthly, 
San  Francisco,  July  to  December,  1904.  The  Indian  section  is  arranged  alpha- 
betically and  begins  on  page  564. 

Powers:  Stephen  Powers,  "Tribes  of  California,"  being  Contributions  to 
North  American  Ethnology,  volume  3,  Washington,  1877. 

Merriam:  C.  Hart  Merriam,  "Distribution  and  Classification  of  the  Mewan 
Stock  of  California,"  American  Anthropologist,  new  series,  volume  9,  pages  338- 
357,  1907. 

Barrett,  Pomo:  S.  A.  Barrett,  "The  Ethno-geography  of  the  Porno  and 
Neighboring  Indians, ' '  being  pages  1  to  332  of  volume  6  of  the  present  series 
of  publications.  Page  citations  follow  the  title,  in  references  in  the  present 
text  made  to  this  and  the  following  works. 

Barrett,  Miwok:  S.  A.  Barrett,  "The  Geography  and  Dialects  of  the  Mi  wok 
Indians, ' '  pages  333  to  368  of  volume  6  of  the  same  series  of  publications. 


1  San  Francisco,  A.  M.  Robertson,  1914. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  33 

Kroeber,  Miwok:  A.  L.  Kroeber,  "On  the  Evidences  of  the  Occupation  of 
Certain  Eegions  by  the  Miwok  Indians,"  pages  369  to  380  of  the  same  volume 
as  the  last. 

Kroeber,  Shoshonean:  The  same,  "Shoshonean  Dialects  of  California," 
volume  4,  pages  65  to  165,  also  of  the  present  series. 

Kroeber,  Cahuilla:  The  same,  "Ethnography  of  the  Cahuilla  Indians," 
pages  29  to  68  of  volume  8  of  the  present  series. 

Several  important  original  sources,  such  as  Hugo  Keid  in  the  Los 
Angeles  Star  of  1852,  and  Alexander  Taylor  in  the  California  Farmer 
of  1860  following,  are  referred  to  or  partly  extracted,  so  far  as  Indian 
place-names  are  concerned,  in  the  above  works. 

The  number  of  California  place-names  taken  from  the  several  Cali- 
fornia Indian  languages  varies  greatly.  In  general,  Spanish  occupa- 
tion has  been  more  favorable  than  American  settlement  to  preservation 
of  native  designations  of  localities.  The  distribution  of  positively  and 
probably  identified  names,  according  to  their  source  from  the  various 
families  of  speech,  is  as  follows : 


Shoshonean 

33 

Maidu 

7 

Chumash 

28 

Yuki 

6 

Miwok 

26 

Athabascan 

4 

Wintun 

25 

Salinan 

2 

Yurok 

16 

Shastan 

2 

Yuman 

15 

Washo 

1 

Pomo 

13 

Lutuami 

1 

Yokuts 

9 

Wiyot 

1 

Costanoan 

7 

Karok,  Chimariko,  Yana,  and  Esselen  have  furnished  no  terms  to 
modern  California  geography. 

Such  obviously  imported  names  of  Indian  origin  as  Cherokee, 
Seneca,  Mohawk,  Oneida,  Tioga,  Sequoya,  and  Maricopa,  have  not 
been  discussed  in  the  present  account. 

THE  NAMES 

Acalanes,  a  land  grant  in  Contra  Costa  County,  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  present  town  of  Lafayette,  is  probably  named  from  a  Costanoan 
Indian  village  of  the  vicinity,  Akalan  or  something  similar,  which  the 
Spaniards  dignified  into  the  Acalanes  "tribe."  The  ending  occurs  on 
many  Costanoan  village  names :  Sacla-n,  Olho-n,  Bolbo-n,  Mutsu-n,  etc. 

Aguanga,  in  Riverside  County,  has  no  connection  with  Spanish 
agua,  "water,"  but  is  a  place  or  village  name  of  the  Shoshonean 


34  '       University  of  California  Publicatio7is  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

Luiseiio  Indians.  The  meaning  is  not  known,  but  the  word  is  derived 
from  the  place-name  proper,  Awa,  plus  the  Indian  locative  case  end- 
ing -nga  (Kroeber,  Shoshonean,  147). 

Ahpah  creek,  entering  the  Klamath  River  from  the  south  just  above 
Blue  Creek,  in  Humboldt  County,  is  named  from  its  Yurok  designa- 
tion, O'po. 

Ahwahnee,  in  Madera  County,  is  situated  forty  miles  from  the  orig- 
inal Awani,  which  was  the  Southern  Miwok  name  of  the  largest  village 
in  Yosemite  Valley  and  therefore  of  the  valley  itself.  The  Indian 
name  of  American  Ahwahnee  was  Wasama  (Merriam,  346,  and  Bar- 
rett, Miwoh,  343).  It  is  of  interest,  though  perhaps  of  no  bearing  in 
the  present  connection,  that  a  similar  name,  Awaniwi,  appears  among 
the  far-distant  but  related  Coast  Miwok  Indians  of  Marin  County  as 
the  appelation  of  a  former  village  in  the  northern  part  of  the  city  of 
San  Rafael. 

Algomah,  in  Siskiyou  County,  is  of  unknown  origin,  and  suggests 
coinage,  or  borrowing  from  the  Eastern  place-name  Algoma,  also 
coined,  given  by  Gannett. 

Algootoon,  which  does  not  appear  on  most  maps,  is  given  by  Bailey 
as  another  name  of  Lakeview,  Riverside  County,  and  as  derived  from 
Algoot,  the  Saboba  {i.e.,  Luiseiio)  hero  who  killed  "Taquitch"  (see 
Tahquitz).  The  name  Algut  sounds  Luisefio,  but  does  not  appear  in 
the  Sparkman  Luiseno  dictionary  in  possession  of  the  University  of 
California.  It  is  probably  a  Spanish  spelling  of  Alwut,  ' '  raven, ' '  who 
is  one  of  the  most  important  traditional  and  religious  heroes  of  the 
Luiseno,  and  into  whom  Tukupar,  "Sky,"  turned  himself  when  he 
went  to  visit  Takwish  on  Mount  San  Jacinto  preparatory  to  killing 
him.^  This  etymology,  however,  does  not  account  for  the  last  syllable 
of  "Algootoon."  Were  it  not  that  guesses  are  already  more  numerous 
in  these  matters  than  knowledge,  the  writer  would  be  tempted  to 
hazard  the  suggestion  of  a  possible  American  corruption  from  Spanish 
algodon,  "cotton." 

Aloma  mountain,  in  Ventura  County,  has  an  unidentified  name. 

Anacapa,  the  name  of  the  island  off  Ventura  County,  is  absurdly 
given  by  Bailey,  page  360,  as  Spanish  for  ' '  Cape  Ann. ' '  The  Chumash 
original  is  Anyapah,  recorded  by  Vancouver  as  Enneeapah,  misspelled 
Enecapah  by  the  map  engraver,  and  then  Spanicized  into  Anacapa 
(Sanchez,  351,  fide  George  Davidson), 


2  Journ.  Am.  Folk  Lore,  xix,  318,  1906 


1916]  Eroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  35 

Anapamu,  the  name  of  a  street  in  Santa  Barbara  city,  is  said  locally 
to  be  of  Indian  origin^  and  has  a  good  Chumash  ring. 

Aptos,  in  Santa  Cruz  County,  is  given  by  Bailey  as  the  name 
of  a  "tribe."  If  this  is  a  fact,  the  village  was  Costanoan;  but  the 
derivation  from  Spanish  apto  seems  not  impossible. 

Areata,  in  Humboldt  County,  is  said  by  Gannett  to  mean  "sunny 
spot"  in  Indian.  Such  a  place-name  would  be  very  unusual  in  any 
California  Indian  language,  nor  does  the  sound  suggest  a  word  in  the 
Wiyot  language,  which  is  the  idiom  spoken  in  the  vicinity. 

Aukum,  in  Eldorado  County,  is,  if  Indian,  which  seems  doubtful, 
of  Northern  Mi  wok  origin. 

Ausaymas,  a  land  grant  in  Santa  Clara  and  San  Benito  counties, 
is  obviously  named  after  the  Ausaymas  or  Ansaymas  Indians  men- 
tioned in  Arroyo  de  la  Cuesta's  Phrase  Book  of  the  Mutsun  Language 
as  speaking  a  dialect  somewhat  different  from  that  of  the  Mutsunes. 
Evidently  Ausayma  and  Mutsun  were  both  Costanoan  villages  near 
Mission  San  Juan  Bautista.  v 

Avawatz  mountains,  north  of  Ludlow  in  San  Bernardino  County, 
have  a  name  that  sounds  like  good  Shoshonean.  Southern  Paiute  or 
Serrano  tribes  lived  in  the  neighborhood. 

Azusa,  or  Asuza,  in  Los  Angeles  County,  was  a  Gabrielino  Sho- 
shonean village,  Asuksa-gna  in  Gabrielino*  or  Ashuksha-vit  in  the 
neighboring  Serrano^  dialect.  According  to  a  correspondent,®  the 
word  means  ' '  skunk  hill. ' ' 

Bally,  or  Bully,  mountain,  in  Shasta  County  near  the  Trinity  line, 
has  its  name  from  Wintun  loli  ( o  like  English  "  aw  " ) ,  "  spirit. ' '  See 
Bully  Choop  and  Yallo  Bally.  There  is  also  a  Bully  Hill  in  Shasta 
County  between  the  Pit  and  McCloud  rivers. 

Beegum  and  Beegum  Butte,  in  Tehama  County,  are  names  of  un- 
identified origin. 

Bohemotash  mountain,  in  Shasta  County,  bears  a  northern  "Wintun 
name.  Bohem  is  "large,"  but  the  second  part  of  the  word  is  not 
known. 


3  J.  P.  Harrington,  American  Anthropologist,  n.  s.  xiii,  725,  1911. 

4  Hugo  Eeid,  originally  in  the  Los  Angeles  Star,  quoted  by  A.  Taylor,  Cali- 
fornia Farmer,  xiv,  1861,  and  by  Hoffman,  Bulletin  Essex  Institute,  xvii,  1885. 

5  Present  series,  viii,  39,  1908. 

6  Mr.  C.  C.  Baker  of  Azusa,  quoting  Mr.  W.  A.  Dalton,  whose  godfather  was 
Hugo  Reid:  Azuncsabit,  "skunk  hill,"  the  skunks  being  of  the  small  or  polecat 
variety,  and  the  name  applied  by  the  Indians  to  the  hill,  east  of  the  present 
town,  where  the  ranch  house  of  the  grant  stood.  As  -bit  is  the  regular  locative 
ending  in  Serrano,  the  literal  meaning  was  probably  "skunk  place"  rather 
than  ' '  hill. ' ' 


36  University  of  California  Puhlications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

Bolbones,  or  more  fully  Arroyo  de  las  Nueces  y  Bolbones,  a  grant 
in  Contra  Costa  County,  probably  derives  its  name  from  a  village 
whose  inhabitants  were  called  Volvon,  Bolbon,  and  Bulbones  by  the 
Spaniards.    See  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  I,  453. 

Bolinas,  in  Marin  County,  is  said  by  Sanchez,  228,  355,  to  be  prob- 
ably an  alteration  of  Los  Baulines,  a  grant  name,  based  in  all  likeli- 
hood on  an  Indian  geographical  designation.  This  seems  reasonable. 
The  division  involved  would  be  the  Coast  Miwok,  and  the  native  word 
probably  Wauli-n. 

Bully  Choop,  or  Bally  Chup,  mountain,  between  Shasta  and  Trinity 
counties,  is  apparently  from  Wintun  holi,  "spirit."  The  meaning  of 
chup  is  not  known.    See  Bally  and  Yallo  Bally. 

Burihuri,  a  land  grant  in  San  Mateo  County,  is  a  name  of  unknown 
source.  The  grant  is  near  San  Bruno,  so  that  the  Costanoan  Indians 
on  it  would  have  been  attached  to  Mission  Dolores  in  San  Francisco. 
Urebure  occurs  as  the  name  of  one  of  the  many  rancherias  formerly 
existing  in  the  vicinity  of  Mission  Dolores.^ 

Cahto,  in  Mendocino  County,  is  in  Athabascan  territory  and  has 
come  to  be  used,  in  the  form  Kato,  for  an  Athabascan  tribe  or  division, 
but  is  a  Pomo  word,  meaning  "lake."^  The  Bailey  definition  of 
"quicksand,"  from  cah,  "water,"  and  to,  "mush,"  is  unproved;  al- 
though ha  and  to  separately  have  this  meaning  in  Pomo,  and  the  ety- 
mology is  repeated  in  the  meaning  cited  in  Barrett  {Pomo,  262),  for 
Bida-to,  "mush-stream"  (also,  it  is  said,  on  account  of  the  presence 
of  quicksand),  the  Northern  Pomo  name  of  a  Coast  Yuki  village  at 
the  mouth  of  Ten  Mile  River  in  the  same  part  of  Mendocino  County. 
Cahto  Creek  in  southeastern  Humboldt  County  is  probably  the  same 
name  as  Cahto  in  northern  Mendocino. 

Cahuenga  pass  and  peak,  in  Los  Angeles  County,  are  undoubtedly 
named  from  some  Gabrielino  Shoshonean  word,  as  shown  by  the 
locative  ending  -nga. 

Cahuilla,  often  written  Coahuila,  but  always  pronounced  "Kawia" 
and  never  "Kwawila,"  is  the  name  of  a  Shoshonean  tribe,  or  rather 
dialect  group,  located  in  San  Gorgonio  Pass,  the  Colorado  desert,  and 
the  vicinity  of  the  present  Cahuilla  reservation  in  Riverside  County. 
The  name,  ever  since  Reid,  an  excellent  authority,  has  been  said  to 
mean  "master,"  but  the  author  has  never  found  an  Indian  to  cor- 


7  Bancroft,  Native  Eaces,  i,  453. 

8  Goddard,  present  series,  v,  67,  1909;  Powers,  150, 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  37 

roborate  this  interpretation,  or  to  admit  the  word  as  being  anything 
else  than  Spanish.    There  is  no  connection  with  Kaweah. 

Calleguas,  in  Ventura  County,  is  derived  from  Chumash  Kayiwiish, 
' '  my  head, ' '  the  name  of  a  rancheria. 

Calpella,  in  Mendocino  County,  according  to  Barrett,  Porno,  143,  is 
named  after  Kalpela,  the  chief  of  the  former  Northern  Pomo  village 
of  Chorachadila,  situated  "on  the  mesa  just  south  of  the  town  of 
Calpella. ' '  Kalpela 's  name" ' '  was  given  to  his  people,  and  was  applied 
by  the  whites  in  a  general  way  to  all  of  the  Indians  living  in  Redwood 
Valley.  .  .  .  The  late  Mr.  A.  E.  Sherwood  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment that  'Cal-pa-lau'  signifies  'mussel  or  shellfish  bearer,'  " — whence 
Bailey 's  notice  is  apparently  derived.  ' '  Mussel ' '  is  khal,  hal,  in  North- 
ern Pomo. 

Camulos,  in  Ventura  County,  is  named  from  an  Indian  village 
Kamulus  or  Kamulas.^"  This  territory  has  usually  been  considered 
Chumash,  but  was  more  likely  Shoshonean;  it  is,  however,  probable 
that  Kamulas  was  its  Chumash  name;  at  any  rate,  the  etymology  in 
Chumash  is  my-mulus,  mulus  being  an  edible  fruit. 

Capay,  a  land  grant  in  Glenn  and  Tehama  counties,  and  another  in 
Yolo  County,  the  latter  surviving  in  modern  nomenclature  as  Capay 
Valley,  are  named  from  Southern  Wintun  (Patwin)  kapai,  ''stream." 

Carquinez  straits,  in  San  Francisco  Bay,  are  named  from  a  South- 
ern Wintun  ' '  tribe ' '  or  village,  Carquin  or  Karkin. 

Caslamayomi,  a  land  grant  in  Sonoma  County,  seems  Indian,  espe- 
cially on  account  of  its  ending,  -yomi  or  -yome,  which  means  ' '  place 
both  in  Southern  Pomo  and  Coast  Miwok. 

Castac  Lake,  in  Tejon  Pass  in  Kern  County,  and  Castac  Creek  in 
Los  Angeles  County,  are  named  from  a  Shoshonean  village,  situated 
near  the  mouth  of  the  stream,  and  called  by  the  neighboring  Chumash 
Kashtiik  (the  ii  unrounded),  "my  eyes"  (dual),  or  "our  eye."  A 
frequented  Indian  trail  led  from  the  village  up  the  stream  to  the  lake 
and  thence  into  the  San  Joaquin  Valley — whence  probably  the  appli- 
cation of  the  name  to  the  two  localities.  The  Shoshonean  Kitanemuk 
or  Serrano  of  the  vicinity  of  the  lake  call  this  Auvapya,  and  the 
Yokuts  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  Sasau.  Both  words  mean  "at  the 
eye."  The  Castac  grant  extended  from  Castac  Lake  north  into  the 
San  Joaquin  Valley. 


9  Recited  in  Kroeber,  Shoshonean,  152. 

10  Handbook  of  American  Indians,  Bur.  Am.  Ethn.  Bull.  30,  part  i,  649. 


38  University  of  California  PuMications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

Catacula,  in  Napa  County,  is  a  name  of  unknown  origin.  The 
grant  lay  in  Wintun  or  Wappo  territory. 

Caymus  grant  in  Napa  County  is  named  for  the  Yukian  Wappo 
village  of  Kaimus,  derivation  unknown,  formerly  on  the  site  of  what 
is  now  Yountville  (Barrett,  Porno,  268). 

Cayucos,  in  San  Luis  Obispo  County,  means  "boats"  or  "skiffs" 
in  South  American  Spanish,  according  to  the  dictionaries,  while 
Cayuca,  a  form  of  the  name  that  also  appears,  denotes  "head"  in 
Cuban  Spanish. 

Chagoopa  plateau  and  creek,  southwest  of  Mount  Whitney,  are  in 
Tulare  County.  The  meaning  is  unknown,  but  the  name  is  almost 
certainly  a  Mono  word.  A  familiar  Shoshonean  noun  ending  -pa 
appears,  as  also  in  Ivanpah,  Hanaupah,  Nopah. 

Chanchelulla  mountain,  in  Trinity  County,  also  appearing  on  maps 
as  Chauchetulla  and  Chenche  LuUa,  seems  to  derive  its  name  from  a 
Wintun  source,  but  the  etymology  is  unknown. 

Chemehuevi  valley  and  mountains,  in  eastern  San  Bernardino 
County,  are  named  after  the  Chemehuevi  tribe,  an  offshoot  of  the 
Southern  Paiute.  The  meaning  of  their  name  is  unknown,  and  its 
source  is  also  not  certain,  although  the  Mohave  appear  to  use  it  not 
only  of  the  Chemehuevi  but  of  all  Paiute  divisions,  and  may  have 
originated  the  term. 

Chimiles,  a  land  grant  in  Napa  County,  between  Vacaville  and 
Napa  city,  bears  a  name  of  unidentified  but  possibly  Indian  origin. 

Choenimne  mountain,  in  Fresno  County,  derives  its  name  from  the 
Yokuts  tribe  of  the  Choinimni,  who  lived  on  Kings  River  near  the 
mountain. 

Cholame,  in  San  Luis  Obispo  County,  is  a  name  of  Salinan  Indian 
derivation.  Cholam,  more  exactly  TcIola'M, — also  given  as  Tco'alam- 
tram,  "Cholam  houses"  or  "Cholam  village," — was  a  rancheria  near 
Mission  San  Miguel,"  and  therefore  at  the  mouth  of  Estrella  Creek, 
as  the  lower  course  of  Cholame  Creek  is  called. 

Choul  mountain,  in  Santa  Clara  County,  bears  a  name  of  unknown 
origin. 

Chowchilla  River  in  the  drainage  of  the  San  Joaquin  was  in  its 
lower  course  the  habitat  of  the  Chauchila  tribe  of  the  Yokuts.  This 
division  bore  a  warlike  reputation  among  neighboring  groups,  and  its 


11  Mason,  present  series,  x,  107,  1912.  The  settlement  known  as  Cholame  is, 
however,  on  the  Cholame  grant,  which  is  on  Cholame  Creek,  toward  Cholame 
Pass,  and  some  distance  easterly  of  San  Miguel,  so  that  the  site  of  the  aborig- 
inal Cholam  village  cannot  be  regarded  as  certainly  known. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  39 

name  may  be  connected  with  the  Yokuts  verb  taudja,  "to  kill,"  but 
this  etymology  is  far  from  certain.  Yokuts  Indians  have  at  times 
translated  the  tribal  name  as  ' '  murderers, ' '  but  this  may  be  an  incor- 
rect ex  post  facto  etymology  on  their  part.  The  Chauchila  have  been 
referred  to  as  a  Miwok  division ;  but  as  the  Miwok,  in  distinction  from 
the  Yokuts,  had  no  true  tribes,  it  is  likely  that  the  Miwok  Chauchilas 
were  so  named  by  the  Americans,  or  by  English-speaking  Indians,  after 
the  name  of  the  stream  near  whose  upper  course  they  live.  There  are 
also  Chowchilla  Mountains  in  Mariposa  County. 

Chualar,  in  Monterey  County,  is  Spanish  "place  of  chual,"  or 
Chenopodium  alhtim. 

Cisco,  in  Placer  County,  is  given  by  Bailey  as  of  Indian  origin,  and 
meaning  a  kind  of  trout.  The  word  will  be  found  in  any  modern  Eng- 
lish dictionary  as  the  name  of  a  fresh-water  fish.  If  originally  Indian, 
it  is  not  California  Indian.    It  is  also  a  family  name. 

Cleone,  in  Mendocino  County,  is  probably  named  from  Kelio,  the 
Northern  Pomo  name  of  one  of  their  divisions  or  more  probably  a 
village.^- 

Coachella,  in  Riverside  County,  is  in  Cahuilla  territory,  but  it  has 
not  been  learned  that  the  name  has  an  Indian  source,  though  it  is 
sometimes  so  stated. 

Coahuila,  see  Cahuilla. 

Collayomi,  a  land  grant  in  Lake  County,  is  no  doubt  named  after 
the  Coyayomi  or  Joyayomi  "tribe"  mentioned  by  Engelhardt.^^  This 
is  probably  a  Coast  or  Lake  Miwok  name,  as  shown  by  the  ending 
-yome,  "place,"  though  the  same  element  occurs  with  a  similar  mean- 
ing in  Southern  Pomo.  Barrett  (Pomo,  316)  identifies  it  hesitatingly 
with  Shoyome,  a  Lake  Miwok  village  on  the  south  side  of  Puta  Creek 
three  and  a  half  miles  below  Guenoc. 

Coloma,  where  gold  was  first  discovered  in  California,  in  Eldorado 
County,  is  given  by  Powers,  315,  as  the  name  of  a  Nishinam  (Southern 
Maidu)  "tribe"  or  village. 

Colusa  County  is  named  from  the  Patwin,  that  is,  Southern  Win- 
tun,  Koru,  a  village  on  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Colusa.  The 
meaning  of  Koru  is  not  known  to  the  Indians,  who  declare  it  to  be 
merely  a  place  name.  The  r  in  this  word  is  trilled,  hence  presents 
difficulty  to  Americans,  which  fact  seems  to  account  for  its  change 
into  1.    The  origin  of  the  third  syllable  is  not  entirely  clear.    Colusa 


12  Handbook  of  American  Indians,  Bur.  Am.  Ethn.  Bull.  30,  part  l,  672. 

13  Franciscans  in  California,  1897,  p.  451. 


40  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

was  originally  spelled  Colusi  or  Coluse,  as  it  is  still  vulgarly  pro- 
nounced. It  is  possible  that  the  ending  is  from  a  Spanish  plural  of 
the  place  name  used  as  a  tribal  name,  as  so  often  happened;  or 
Korusi  may  have  been  an  Indian  variant  of  Koru.  Indian  informants 
mention  a  belief  locally  current  among  Americans  that  Koru  was  the 
name  of  a  chief  of  the  rancheria,  but  emphatically  deny  this.  It  will 
be  seen  that  a  similar  statement  has  been  made  concerning  Yolo,  and 
that  this  statement  is  also  contradicted  by  the  available  Indian  in- 
formation. 

Comptche,  in  Mendocino  County,  is  from  an  unknown  source. 
There  was  a  Pomo  village  Komacho  in  the  region.  Barrett,  Porno, 
178. 

Concow,  in  Butte  County,  surviving  also  as  the  official  and  popular 
name  of  the  Concow  or  Maidu  Indians  on  Round  Valley  reservation, 
is  from  the  Southwestern  Maidu  word  Koyongkau.  Powers,  283,  gives 
the  etymology  from  koyo,  "plain"  or  "valley,  and  kau,  "earth"  or 
"place." 

Cortina  Valley,  in  Colusa  County,  appears  to  be  named  for  Kotina, 
a  former  Southern  Wintun  chief  (Barrett,  Pomo,  324),  though 
whether  his  name  was  Indian,  or  an  Indian  corruption  of  Spanish 
Cortina,  is  not  known. 

Cosmit  reservation,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  called  Kosmit  also  in 
the  Diegueno  language,  but  the  meaning  is  not  known. 

Coso,  a  range  and  place  in  Inyo  County,  appear  to  be  named  after 
a  Shoshonean  Indian  division,  allied  to  the  Panamint  or  part  of  them. 
It  is,  however,  possible  that  Coso  is  originally  a  place  name,  from 
which  the  range  derived  its  name,  after  which  the  whites  and  then  the 
Indians  came  to  speak  of  the  Coso  Mountain  Indians  or  the  Koso  tribe. 
The  ethnology  of  this  region  is  very  little  known.  Bailey  says  that 
Coso  means  "broken  coal."  Words  beginning  with  ku-  mean  char- 
coal in  several  Shoshonean  dialects  of  the  vicinity.  A  locality  or  vil- 
lage, but  hardly  a  tribe,  might  be  given  such  a  name  by  Indians. 

Cosumnes  River  is  evidently  named  from  an  Indian  village  or 
tribe,  as  shown  by  the  ending  -umne  or  -amni,  discussed  under  Tuo- 
lumne. The  location  indicates  a  Plains  Miwok  origin.  Kawso 
(=Koso)  is  mentioned  by  Merriam,  348,  as  the  name  given  by  the 
Pawenan  (part  of  the  Southern  Maidu)  to  the  Mokozumne  Plains 
Miwok  division.  Cosumne  thus  appears  to  be  Koso  plus  -umni  plus 
the  Spanish  or  English  plural  -s ;  Mokozumne  may  be  only  a  form  of 
the  same  name;  and  the  term  denotes  the  people  of  a  Plains  Miwok 


1916]  Kroeier:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  41 

village  or  tribe.  The  derivation  of  Cosumnes  from  Miwok  kosum, 
"salmon,"  given  by  Bailey  and  others,  should  also  be  mentioned, 
though  unverified. 

Cotati,  in  Sonoma  County,  is  named  for  Kotati,  a  Coast  Miwok  vil- 
lage just  north  of  the  present  town  (Barrett,  Porno,  311).  The  mean- 
ing of  the  word  is  unknown. 

Coyote,  and  Coyote  Creek,  in  Santa  Clara  County.  Gannett  says: 
"The  word,  in  the  dialect  of  the  Cushina  and  other  tribes  inhabiting 
the  upper  portions  of  Sacramento  Valley,  means  a  species  of  dog." 
This  is  untrue.  The  origin  of  the  word  is  Aztec  coyotl,  whence  Mexi- 
can Spanish  and  ultimately  English  coyote. 

Cuati,  the  name  of  a  land  grant  in  Los  Angeles  County,  not  to  be 
confused  with  Quati  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  is  of  unknown  origin. 

Cucamonga,  in  San  Bernardino  County,  is  a  Shoshonean  place 
name,  Kukomo-nga  or  Kukamo-nga  in  Gabrielino,  Kukumu-nga-bit  or 
Kukamo-na-t  in  Serrano  (Kroeber,  Shoshonean,  134,  142,  Cahuilla, 
34,39). 

Cuyama  River,  between  San  Luis  Obispo  and  Santa  Barbara  coun- 
ties, derives  its  name  from  a  Chumash  place-name  Kuyam,  of  un- 
known significance. 

Cuyamaca  Mountains,  in  San  Diego  County,  were  so  called  by  the 
Dieguefio  Indians.    Ekwi-amak  is  ' '  rain-above. ' ' 

Elim,  in  Tehama  County.  The  origin  is  unknown.  If  Indian,  the 
name  is  of  Wintun  source. 

Guajome,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  from  Luiseiio  Wakhaumai 
(Kroeber,  Shoshonean,  147). 

Gualala  River,  in  Sonoma  and  Mendocino  counties,  according  to 
Barrett,  Porno,  224,  is  probably  from  "Pomo  wala'li  or  wa'lali,  which 
in  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  dialects  is  ...  a  generic  term 
signifying  the  meeting-place  of  the  waters  of  any  in-fiowing  stream 
with  those  of  the  stream  into  which  it  flows  or  with  the  ocean,"  in 
short,  a  river  mouth.    Any  connection  with  Walhalla  is  imaginary. 

Guatay,  a  San  Diego  County  reservation,  is  named  from  Diegueno 
kivatai, ' '  large. ' ' 

Guenoc,  a  land  grant  and  town  in  Lake  County,  is  a  name  of  doubt- 
ful origin,  according  to  Barrett,  Porno,  317. 

Guejito,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  from  an  unknown  source,  prob- 
ably Spanish,  as  indicated  by  the  ending.  Guijo  is  "gravel"  in 
Spanish. 


42  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

Guesisosi,  a  land  grant  in  Yolo  County,  on  Cache  Creek  a  few  miles 
above  Woodland,  in  territory  originally  belonging  to  the  Patwin  or 
Southern  Wintun.    The  name  is  unidentified. 

Guilicos  or  Los  Guilicos  grant,  in  Sonoma  County,  is  from  Wilikos, 
the  Coast  Miwok  name  of  a  former  Wappo  village  at  the  head  of 
Sonoma  Creek  (Barrett,  Porno,  269) .  There  was  also  a  Southern  Pomo 
village,  named  Wilok,  about  three  miles  northeast  of  Santa  Rosa  (Bar- 
rett, Pomo,  222). 

Guyapipe  reservation,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  named  ewi-apaip  or 
awi-apaip,  "rock  lie  on,"  in  the  Diegueiio  dialect. 

Haiwee  Creek,  in  Inyo  County.    Unidentified. 

Hanaupah  Canyon,  in  the  Panamint  range,  in  Inyo  County.  Un- 
identified. The  form  of  the  name,  however,  including  the  suffix  -pa, 
as  well  as  the  situation  of  the  locality,  make  an  ultimate  Shoshonean 
source  likely. 

Hemet,  in  Riverside  County,  appears  not  to  have  been  identified, 
although  the  word  sounds  as  if  it  might  be  Luiseno  Shoshonean. 

Hetch  Hetchy  Valley,  in  the  famous  canyon  on  Tuolumne  River,  is 
named  from  a  Central  Miwok  word  denoting  a  kind  of  grass  or  plant 
with  edible  seeds  abounding  in  the  valley.  Merriam,  345,  gives  Hetch- 
hetch-e  as  a  Miwok  village  in  the  valley. 

Hettenchow,  or  Kettfynchow,  or  Kettenshaw,  a  peak  and  valley  in 
Trinity  County,  are,  according  to  Powers,  117,  named  from  Wintun 
ketten  or  hetten,  '"cammas,"  and  chow,  "valley,"  whereas  Hetten 
Pum  means  ' '  cammas  earth. ' '  Pom  is  Wintun  for  ' '  land, ' '  and  there 
seems  little  reason  to  doubt  that  hetten  denotes  camas,  or  at  least  some 
kind  of  edible  root. 

Homoa,  near  San  Bernardino,  is  from  Shoshonean  Serrano  Hom- 
hoa-bit  (Kroeber,  Shoshonean,  134). 

Honcut,  in  Butte  County,  and  Honcut  Creek  between  Butte  and 
Yuba  counties,  probably  named  after  a  land  grant  in  Yuba  County, 
take  their  designation  from  a  Maidu  village  near  the  mouth  of  the 
creek.    Powers,  282. 

Hoopa,  in  Humboldt  County,  is  the  Yurok  name  of  the  valley  as  a 
whole,  Hupa,  or  better  Hupo,  though  the  "o"  is  so  open  that  its 
quality  is  well  given  by  English  "aw."  It  is  not  the  name  of  the 
"tribe,"  for  the  Yurok  called  the  Hoopa  Indians  Hupo-la  after  the 
locality. 

Hoppow  Creek,  an  affluent  of  the  Klamath,  in  Del  Norte  County, 
is  named  after  the  Yurok  village  Ho  'opeu. 


1916]  Kroeier:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  43 

Horse  Linto  Creek,  in  Humboldt  County,  is  a  settler's  rendering 
of  Haslinding,^*  the  Hupa  name  of  the  village  at  the  mouth  of  the 
stream. 

Hosselkus  valley,  in  Plumas  County,  has  an  unidentified  name ;  if 
Indian,  it  would  be  Maidu. 

Huasna,  in  San  Luis  Obispo  County,  is  given  as  a  Chumash  village 
by  Alexander  Taylor.^^ 

Hueneme,  in  Ventura  County,  is  originally  a  Chumashan  place 
name,  Wene'me  or  Wene'mu. 

Huichica,  a  land  grant  in  Sonoma  and  Napa  counties,  is  named 
from  Huchi,  a  Coast  Miwok  village  which  stood  near  the  plaza  of  the 
city  of  Sonoma.    The  etymology  is  unknown  (Barrett,  Porno,  312). 

Hunto,  the  name  of  a  mountain  in  Yosemite  National  Park,  is  from 
an  Indian  word  for  eye,  according  to  Sanchez,  379.  Huntu  is  ''eye" 
in  Southern  Sierra  Miwok,  the  native  dialect  of  the  vicinity. 

Hyampom,  on  the  south  fork  of  the  Trinity  River,  in  Trinity  Coun- 
ty, is  evidently  Northern  Wintun,  in  which  pom  is  "land"  or  "place." 
Powers,  231,  gives  Haienpum  as  a  place  on  the  Hay  Fork  of  Trinity 
River  and  as  meaning  "high  hill,"  but  pom  clearly  has  the  meaning 
of  "down,"  "earth,"  or  "land"  rather  than  of  "elevation"  in 
Wintun. 

laqua  Buttes,  and  laqua,  in  Humboldt  County,  seem  to  be  named 
from  Aiekwi  or  Aiekwe  or  Ayokwe,  the  form  of  native  greeting,  as 
well  as  of  salutation  at  parting,  common  to  several  of  the  languages  of 
Humboldt  County,  and  still  frequently  used  instead  of  "good  day" 
between  Indians  and  whites. 

Igo,  in  Shasta  County,  is  of  unknown  origin. 

Inaja,  more  properly  Ifiaja,  an  Indian  reservation  in  San  Diego 
County,  is  named  from  Diegueiio  Indian  Any-aha,  ' '  my  water. ' ' 

Inyo  County  is  said  to  be  named  after  an  Indian  tribe.  No  such 
division  or  village  appears  to  have  been  recorded,  and  although  the 
word  sounds  Shoshonean,  and  the  derivation  seems  probable,  it  must 
be  regarded  as  uncertain. 

Ivanpah,  in  San  Bernardino  County,  is  in  Chemehuevi,  that  is. 
Southern  Paiute,  territory,  and  the  name  contains  only  sounds  that 
occur  in  that  language.  Bailey  says  it  is  from  ivan,  "dove,"  and  pah, 
' '  water, ' '  which  the  writer  is  unable  either  to  admit  or  refute. 


1*  Goddard,  present  series  I,  12,  1903:  Xaslindin. 
15  California  Farmer,  October  18,  1861. 


4-1  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

Jalaraa,  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  is  named  from  a  Chumash  vil- 
lage Halam.^" 

Jamaclta  or  Jamacho,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  from  Diegueno  In- 
dian Hamacha,  the  place  being  named  after  a  small  wild  squash  plant. 

Jamul,  in  San  Diego  County,  has  its  name  from  Diegueiio  ha-mul 
(from  aha,  "water"),  meaning  "foam"  or  "lather." 

Jolon,  in  Monterey  County,  is  an  aboriginal  site  of  the  so-called 
Salinan  Indians,  and  is  still  inhabited  by  them.  The  origin  of  the 
name,  however,  is  uncertain,  and  the  meaning  undetermined.^^ 

Jonive,  a  grant  in  Sonoma  County,  has  a  name  of  unknown  origin. 
The  sound  v  is  not  Indian,  in  this  vicinity;  but  might  be  Spanish 
orthography  for  b. 

Juristac,  a  land  grant  in  San  Benito  County,  is  named  from  a 
Costanoan  place-word,  as  indicated  by  the  locative  case  -tak.  See  also 
TJlistac. 

Juriipa,  in  San  Bernardino  County,  is  Serrano  or  Gabrielino  Sho- 
shonean  Hurupa  or  Hurumpa,  meaning  unknown  (Kroeber,  Sho- 
shonean,  134,  Cahuilla,  39). 

Kaweah  River  is  named  after  a  Yokuts  tribe  called  Kawia,  or  prob- 
ably, more  exactly,  Ga'wia.  They  lived  on  or  near  the  river  where  it 
emerges  from  the  foothills  into  the  plains.  The  name  has  no  known 
connection  with  the  almost  identically  pronounced  Southern  Cali- 
fornia term  Cahuilla. 

Kai-ai-au-wa  Peak,  near  Yosemite,  in  Mariposa  County,  is  in  South- 
trn  Miwok  territory,  but  the  origin  and  meaning  of  the  name  are  not 
known. 

Ke-ka-wa-ka,  or  Kekawa,  creek,  an  affluent  of  Eel  River,  in  South- 
western Trinity  County,  bears  a  name  of  unknown  but  presumably 
Indian  origin. 

Kenoktai,  Conockti,  Kanaktai,  the  name  of  a  prominent  peak  in 
Lake  County  also  known  as  Uncle  Sam  Mountain,  is  derived  from 
the  Southeastern  Pomo  name  Knoktai,  from  kno,  "mountain,"  and 
hatai,  "woman"  (Barrett,  Pomo,  183). 

KensJiaw  Spritig,  in  Shasta  County,  between  Chanchelulla  and 
Beegum  Mountains,  is  in  Wintun  territory.  The  word  sounds  Wintun. 
Compare  Hettenchow  or  Kettenchow. 


16  Alexander  Taylor,  California  Farmer,  October  18,  1861,  corroborates  the  ex- 
istence of  the  village,  but  his  lalamma  is  only  a  misspelling  of  Spanish  Jalama. 

17  See  Mason,  "The  Ethnology  of  the  Salinan  Indians,"  in  the  present  series, 
X,  106-108,  1912. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  45 

Kibesillah,  in  Mendocino  County,  suggests  a  derivation  from  Pomo 
kdbe,  "rock,"  sila,  ''flat."  No  such  Pomo  name  is  known  in  the 
vicinity  of  Kibesillah,  but  Barrett,  Pomo,  230,  mentions  kahe-sila-wina, 
"  rock-flat-upon, "  as  a  former  village  of  the  Southwestern  Pomo  at 
Salt  Point. 

Kimshew  and  Little  Kimshew  creeks,  in  Butte  County,  are  near 
Nimshew,  and  their  name,  like  the  latter,  is  presumably  also  of  Maidu 
Indian  origin. 

Klamath.  This  well-known  name  of  a  large  river,  lakes,  former 
California  county,  present  post-office  in  the  same  state,  and  flourish- 
ing city  in  Oregon,  is  of  obscure  origin.  The  Klamath  Indians  of 
Oregon,  a  sister  tribe  of  the  more  famous  Modoc,  still  live  on  the  upper 
drainage  of  the  river.  They  call  themselves  Maklaks,  ' '  people. ' '  The 
Chinook  of  the  Columbia  River  called  the  tribe  Tlamatl.^^  From  this 
word  the  early  American  forms  of  the  name,  Tlameth  and  Clamet, 
seem  to  be  derived,  whence  in  turn  the  more  recent  Klamath.  English 
speaking  people  regularly  change  aboriginal  surd  1  or  tl  into  kl  at  the 
beginning  of  words,  because,  although  tl  in  little  is  as  familiar  as  kl 
in  pickle,  tl  does  not  occur  initially  in  English,  whereas  kl  is  common 
(clear,  clean,  clever,  click,  close),  and  it  is  well  known  that  the  un- 
trained ear  hears  only  what  the  tongue  is  accustomed  to  produce.  The 
same  phonetic  law  has  produced  Klickitat,  and  Klingit  for  Tlingit. 
It  is,  however,  not  certain  that  Chinook  Tlamatl  is  a  rendering  of 
Maklaks.  De  Mofras,"  earlier  than  Hale,  speaks  of  the  Klamacs.  This 
form  is  nearer  both  to  original  Maklaks  and  to  modern  Klamath  than 
is  Tlamatl.  It  is  possible  that  Klamacs  and  Klamath  are  a  corruption, 
by  metathesis  of  consonants,  directly  from  Maklaks. 

Klamathon,  in  Siskiyou  County.  This  name  is  apparently  coined 
from  Klamath. 

Koip  Peak,  between  Mono  and  Tuolumne  counties,  is  probably, 
like  near-by  Kuna  Peak,  named  from  a  Mono  Indian  word.  Koipa  is 
* '  mountain  sheep ' '  in  the  closely  related  Northern  Paiute  dialect. 

Kosk,  and  Kosk  Creek,  in  Shasta  County,  are  in  Achomawi  or  Pit 
River  Indian  territory,  and  the  word  sounds  as  if  it  might  have  been 
taken  from  that  language. 

Kuna  Peak,  between  Tuolumne  and  Mono  counties,  is  probably 
named  from  the  Shoshonean  word  kuna,  usually  meaning  "fire,"  but 
appearing  in  the  Mono  dialect  of  the  vicinity  with  the  signification  of 
"fire-wood." 


18  Hale,  U.  S.  Expl.  Exped.,  vi,  218. 
10  11,  335. 


46  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

Lac,  a  grant  in  Sonoma  County.    Unidentified. 

LassecJc  Peak,  in  Humboldt  County,  is  said  to  be  named  after  a 
chief  Lasseck  or  Lassik.  The  Athabascan  Indians  of  Van  Duzen,  Lar- 
rabee,  and  Dobbin  creeks,  and  the  head  of  Mad  River,  have  also  gen- 
erally been  called  Lassik  after  his  name. 

Lehec,  in  Kern  County,  has  an  unidentified  name. 

Locoallomi  or  Locallomi  grant,  in  Pope  Valley  in  Napa  County, 
seems  to  be  named  from  Lakahyome  (Barrett,  Porno,  273),  the  Lake 
Miwok  name  of  a  Wappo  rancheria  which  these  Indians  themselves 
called  Loknoma,  and  which  stood  three-fourths  of  a  mile  northeast  of 
Middletown  in  Lake  County.  The  Locollomillo  (pronounce  Loko- 
yomio)  Indians  were  said  by  Alexander  Taylor-"  to  be  near  the 
Guenocks'  rancheria  which  in  turn  lay  between  Clear  Lake  and  Napa. 
The  meaning  of  Lakahyome  is  not  known,  except  that  -yome  occurs  as 
an  ending  on  many  Lake  Miwok  village  names  with  the  signification 
of  "place." 

Loconoma  Valley,  in  which  Middletown,  Lake  County,  is  situated, 
is  named  from  a  former  Wappo  village,  near  Middletown,  called  Lok- 
noma, from  lok,  "wild  goose,"  and  noma,  "village."    See  Locoallomi. 

Loleta,  in  Humboldt  County,  is  given  by  Gannett  as  meaning  "a 
pleasant  place"  in  Indian.  This  meaning  does  not  appear  probable, 
and  the  word  has  not  a  Wiyot  ring.  It  is  more  likely  the  Spanish 
woman's  name  Lolita. 

Lompoc,  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  like  Huasna,  is  mentioned  by 
Alexander  Taylor^^  as  having  been  the  name  of  a  Chumash  village. 

Lospe  Mountain,  near  Guadalupe  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  was  in 
Chumash  Indian  territory,  and  the  word,  though  unidentified,  might 
with  perfect  propriety  have  been  taken  from  one  of  the  Chumash 
idioms. 

Malihu,  one  of  the  three  names  of  the  Topanga-Malibu-Sequit  land 
grant  in  Los  Angeles  County,  seems  to  go  back  for  its  source  to  the 
appelation  of  a  Chumashan  or  Gabrielino  Shoshonean  village,  called 
Maliwu  in  Chumash,  which  lay  on  the  east  side  of  the  mouth  of  Malibu 
Creek. 

Mallacomes,  two  land  grants  also  called  Moristul  (which  see),  one 
in  Sonoma,  the  other  in  Napa  and  Sonoma  counties,  are  named  from 
Maiyakma,  a  former  Yukian  Wappo  village  a  mile  south  of  the  pres- 
ent  Calistoga.     Barrett,  Porno,  269.     The  meaning  is  not  known. 


20  In  the  California  Farmer  of  March  30,  1860. 

21  California  Farmer,  October  18,  1861. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  47 

Bailey's  etymology  of  may-a-eamass,  "camass  eaters,"  is  imaginary,' 
since  caraas  is  a  Northern  and  not  a  Californian  Indian  word,  and 
"eat"  is  not  mai  in  Wappo  or  any  neighboring  language. 

Marin  County.  The  ''official"  derivation  is  from  chief  Marin  of 
the  Lecatuit  or  Likatuit  or  Lekahtewutko  "tribe,"  a  division  or  more 
probably  a  village  of  the  Coast  Miwok.  This  is  probably  true,  but  it 
is  unlikely  that  Marin  was  the  Indian  name  of  this  man.  In  his  native 
language  the  sound  "r"  does  not  occur.  Maslin  goes  on  to  say  that 
after  being  subdued,  "Marin"  was  baptized  Marinero,  "mariner"  and 
became  a  ferryman  on  San  Francisco  Bay.  It  is  altogether  more  prob- 
able that  he  first  followed  this  occupation,  was  then  called  ' '  Marinero, ' ' 
and  that  Marin  is  an  abbreviation  or  corruption  of  this  Spanish  name. 

Matajuai,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  Dieguerio  Amat-ahwai,  "earth- 
white,  ' '  so  named  from  white  earth  or  scum,  used  as  paint,  being  found 
at  the  spot.    The  variant  Matagual  is  only  a  misprint. 

Matilija,  in  Ventura  County,  is  from  Ma'tilha,  or,  according  to  H. 
W.  Henshaw,  Matilaha,  a  Chumash  place  name. 

Mattole  River,  in  Humboldt  County.  The  Wiyot  of  Humboldt  Bay 
call  the  Athabascan  Indians  of  this  vicinity  Medol,  but  it  is  not  known 
if  the  name  is  original  with  them. 

Maturango  Peak,  in  Inyo  County.  Uncertain,  but  more  probably 
Spanish  or  corrupted  Spanish  than  Indian. 

Mentone,  in  San  Bernardino  County,  is  given  by  Bailey  as  "In- 
dian" for  "chin."  Menton  is  Spanish  for  this  part  of  the  body;  but 
it  is  more  likely  that  the  place  is  named  after  the  one  in  the  French 
Riviera. 

Mettah,  a  school  district  in  Humboldt  County,  is  named  from  the 
Yurok  village  of  Meta  on  the  south  side  of  the  Klamath  River. 

Moco  Canyon,  in  Eldorado  County.  This  name  is  not  Indian,  but 
means  muck,  mucus,  or  slag  in  Spanish. 

Modoc  County  is  named  after  the  Modoc  Indians,  a  tribe  closely 
allied  in  speech  to  the  Klamath  or  "Klamath  Lakes"  adjoining  them 
on  the  north.  Maslin  gives  the  meaning  of  the  word  as  "the  head  of 
the  river,"  but  in  a  note  cites  General  0.  0.  Howard  as  stating  that 
Modoc  is  a  "corruption"  of  Maklaks  and  means  "people."  As  the 
late  veteran  Indian  linguist  A.  S.  Gatschet  more  than  twenty  years 
ago  compiled  and  published  an  elaborate  and  careful  dictionary  of 
the  Klamath  language,--  from  which  the  Modoc  differs  scarcely  even 
as  a  dialect,  so  that  all  the  facts  bearing  on  the  question  have  long 


22  Contributions  to  North  American  Ethnology,  n,  Washington,  1890. 


48  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

"since  been  of  authentic  record,  this  word  furnishes  a  memorable  ex- 
ample of  the  free  rein  which  it  has  been  customary  to  give  to  current 
tradition,  vulgar  rumor,  and  unsubstantiated  opinion,  in  the  matter  of 
Indian  names.  Modoc  is  the  Klamath  and  Modoc  word  for  "south" 
or  "southern,"  written  by  Gatschet  moatok,  in  another  grammatical 
form  moatokni,  applied  by  the  Klamath  to  their  southern  kinsmen  the 
Modoc,  though  never,  in  such  application,  without  the  addition  of  a 
word  like  maklaks,  "people"  (see  Klamath).  In  a  word,  "Modoc" 
means  "south,"  and  nothing  more  or  less. 

Mohave,  or  Mojave,  originally  written  Jamajab  by  the  Spanish  ex- 
plorer Garces,  from  Hamakhava  (k  and  h  separate  sounds),  the  name 
for  themselves  of  an  important  tribe,  of  Yuman  lineage,  in  the  bottom 
lands  of  the  Colorado  River  in  the  region  where  California,  Arizona, 
and  Nevada  now  meet.  Outside  of  their  own  territory,  the  name  was 
first  applied  to  the  Mohave  River  to  the  west,  from  an  erroneous  im- 
pression that  this  drained  into  the  Colorado  in  the  habitat  of  the 
Mohave.  From  the  river,  the  desert  in  which  it  is  lost  took  its  designa- 
tion, and  from  this  the  town  in  its  western  reaches.  All  the  localities 
to  which  the  name  Mohave  now  adheres  were  in  Shoshonean  and  not 
in  Mohave  territory.  The  meaning  of  the  name  Hamakhava  is  not 
known  to  the  Mohave  of  today,  and  analysis  of  their  language  has  so 
far  failed  to  reveal  an  etymology.  A.  S.  Gatschet  appears  to  be  re- 
sponsible for  the  explanation  "three  mountains,"  adopted  by  Bailey, 
Gannett,  and  others.  This  derivation  is  positively  erroneous.  ' '  Three ' ' 
is  hamok  in  Mohave,  and  "mountain,"  avi,  so  that  the  vowels  differ 
from  those  of  Hamakhava ;  moreover  the  rules  of  composition  in  the 
language  demand  the  inverse  order,  Avi-hamok.  This  is  a  place  name 
actually  found  in  the  Mohave  dialect,  but  denotes  a  locality  near 
Tehachapi  Pass. 

Mokelumne  River  is  named  from  Indian  Mokelurani,  "people  of 
Mokel,"  a  Plains  Miwok  village  near  Lockford  on  this  stream,  accord- 
ing to  Barrett,  Miwok,  340,  and  Merriam,  350.  The  ending  -umni 
occurs  also  in  Tuolumne  and  Cosumnes. 

Monache  Peak,  in  Tulare  County,  is  named  from  the  Monachi 
Indians,  usually  called  Mono,  which  word  see. 

Mono  County  and  Lake  are  named  after  a  wide-spread  division  of 
Shoshonean  Indians  on  both  slopes  of  the  Southern  Sierra  Nevada. 
In  speech  and  presumably  in  origin  they  are  closely  allied  to  the 
Northern  Paiute  of  Nevada  and  Oregon  and  the  Bannock  of  Idaho. 
By  their  Yokuts  neighbors  they  are  called  Monachi.    The  ending  -chi 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  49 

occurs  otherwise  in  Yokiits  and  Miwok  as  a  suffix  on  names  of  tribes 
or  divisions:  Yaudanchi,  Wimilchi,  Heuchi,  Pitkachi,  Wakichi,  Dalin- 
chi,  Apiachi,  Pohonichi,  perhaps  also  Tachi,  Wobonuch,  and  Endim- 
bich.  The  stem  therefore  appears  to  be  Mona.  To  the  Spaniards,  who 
knew  the  Miwok  and  Yokuts  earlier  than  they  knew  the  Monachi, 
this  stem  might  easily  suggest  mono,  ' '  monkey. ' '  This  is  the  interpre- 
tation usually  given,  as  by  Maslin,  but  it  seems  to  be  secondary. 
Bailey  also  says  that  Mono  is  a  tribal  name,  but  his  explanation  of 
"good-looking"  is  unfounded.  The  Yokuts  themselves  give  a  sec- 
ondary interpretation  of  Monachi,  which  is  interesting  as  an  example 
of  folk  etymology,  but  very  improbable.  Monai,  monoi,  or  monoyi 
means  "flies"  in  Yokuts  speech.  The  Monos,  as  mountain  dwellers  in 
the  higher  Sierra,  climbed  skillfully  about  steep  cliffs  and  rocks  until 
from  a  distance  they  looked  like  flies  on  a  vertical  surface :  hence  their 
designation,  the  Indians  say.  But  Indian  tribal  names  of  known  origin 
do  not  follow  such  lines  of  thought.  It  appears  that  Monachi,  like 
most  of  the  names  of  the  Yokuts  for  their  own  or  other  tribes,  no 
longer  possesses  a  determinable  meaning. 

Moorek,  a  school  district  in  Humboldt  County,  is  named  from 
Mureku  or  Murekw,  a  Yurok  village  on  the  north  side  of  the  Klamath 
River. 

Moosa,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  a  name  of  unknown  origin. 

Moristul,  or  Muristul,  the  name  of  two  land  grants  in  Sonoma  and 
in  Napa  and  Sonoma  counties,  also  called  Mallacomes  (which  see),  is 
from  Mutistul,  a  Wappo  village  formerly  four  and  a  half  miles  west 
of  Calistoga  in  the  mountains.  The  derivation  is  from  muti,  ' '  north, ' ' 
and  tul,  "large  valley."    Barrett,  Porno,  271. 

Morongo,  the  name  of  a  valley,  a  creek,  and  an  Indian  reservation 
near  Banning,  Riverside  County,  is  Serrano  Shoshonean  for  a  native 
village  in  Morongo  Valley  or  on  Mission  Creek.    Kroeber,  Cahuilla,  35 

Muah,  a  peak  between  Tulare  and  Inyo  counties.  Unidentified,  but 
the  location  of  the  mountain  and  the  sound  of  the  word  indicate  a 
Shoshonean  origin,  probably  Mono. 

Mugu,  a  point  and  lagoon  in  Ventura  County,  is  Chumash  Indian 
muwu,  "beach,"  used  as  a  specific  village  or  place  name. 

Musalacon,  a  land  grant  near  Cloverdale,  Sonoma  County,  is  prob- 
ably of  Pomo  origin.  Powers,  183,  says  of  the  Indians  he  calls  the 
Misalla  Magun:  "This  branch  of  the  [Pomo]  nation  was  named  after 
a  famous  chief  they  once  had.    A  Gallinomero  [Southern  Pomo]  told 


60  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

me  the  name  was  a  corruption  of  mi-sar-la-a'-ko,  which  denotes  'long 
snake.'    Another  form  for  the  name  is  Mu-sal-la-ktin'." 

Muscupiabe,  near  San  Bernardino,  was  in  Serrano  Shoshonean  ter- 
ritory, and  is  the  Serrano  name  of  the  place  or  vicinity,  Muskupia 
being  the  stem,  and  -hit,  appearing  also  as  -pet  and  -vit,  a  locative 
suffix.    Cited  by  Kroeber,  Shoshonean,  134. 

Najalayegua,  a  land  grant  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  is  evidently 
named  after  a  Chumash  village,  called  Majalayghua  by  Alexander 
Tajdor.^^  This  is  no  doubt  a  misspelled  form  of  Najalayegua,  but  was 
probably  given  to  Taylor  as  an  aboriginal  site  and  name  by  Indian 
informants. 

Napa  County  and  City  are  said  by  Maslin  and  others  to  be  named 
from  an  Indian  word  meaning  "fish."  Bailey  gives  a  derivation  from 
an  Indian  "tribe,"  while  Gannett  says  the  word  means  "house"  in 
Indian.  No  Indian  village  called  Napa  has  ever  been  located  in  the' 
region.  As  regards  the  meaning  "fish,"  "harpoon-point"  is  perhaps 
to  be  substituted,  since  Barrett,  Porno,  293,  says  that  no  such  word  as 
Napa  has  been  found  in  the  Wintun,  Wappo,  or  Miwok  languages, 
which  are  the  ones  that  would  come  in  question,  but  that  the  word  is 
used  in  several  of  the  Pomo  dialects,  some  of  which  were  spoken  not 
far  away,  as  the  name  of  the  detachable  points  of  the  native  fish  har- 
poon, although  there  is  no  distinct  evidence  that  this  is  the  origin  of  the 
name  Napa. 

Natoma,  in  Sacramento  County,  passes  current  as  meaning  "clear 
water,"  but  this  appears  the  creation  of  an  American  mind.  The 
word  seems  derived  from  Maidu  nato  or  noto,  "north"  (or,  according 
to  some  translations,  "east" — probably  the  true  meaning  is  "up 
stream"),  and  was  presumably  a  village  name.    See  Powers,  317. 

Neenach,  in  Los  Angeles  County,  is  of  unknown  origin,  but  the 
place  is  in  Shoshonean  territory  and  the  word  sounds  as  if  it  might  be 
from  some  Shoshonean  dialect. 

Nimshew,  in  Butte  County,  is  named  from  Maidu  nem  seu  (or 
setvi),  "large  stream."    Powers,  283. 

Nipomo,  in  San  Luis  Obispo  County,  is  named  from  a  Chumash 
village.^* 

Nojoqui,  probably  more  correctly  Nojogui,  since  Nojohui  is  also 
found,  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  seems  to  go  back  to  a  Chumash 
Indian  Onohwi. 


23  California  Farmer,  April  24,  1863. 

24  Schumacher  in  Smithsonian  Report  for  1874,  342,  1875. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  51 

Nomcult  Farm,  the  first  name  applied  to  the  reservation  later  desig- 
nated as  Round  Valley.  This  term  is  not  in  use  now.  The  word  is 
Wintun,  although  the  reservation  is  on  original  Yuki  territory.  Nom- 
is  ' '  west, "  as  in  Nomlaki,  ' '  west-tongue,  west  language ' ' ;  -cult  con- 
tains a  combination  of  consonants  not  tolerated  in  Wintun  but  stand- 
ing for  "Ih,"  as  the  surd  or  "Welsh"  1  of  that  language  may  be  rep- 
resented. The  second  element  would  in  that  case  be  kolh,  which,  ac- 
cording to  Powers,  230,  represents  kekhl,  "tribe."  Bailey  gives 
Meshakai,  ' '  tule  valley, ' '  as  the  aboriginal  name  of  Round  Valley,  but 
the  v/riter  has  never  met  with  this  term. 

No'pah  Range,  in  Inyo  County.  The  name  sounds  Shoshonean,  the 
locality  suggests  the  same. 

Noyo  River,  in  Mendocino  County,  is  named  after  the  former 
Northern  Pomo  village  at  the  mouth  of  Pudding  Creek.  Barrett, 
Porno,  134,  says  that  this  creek  was  named  after  the  village  (which  is 
general  Indian  custom),  but  that  "after  the  coming  of  the  whites  the 
name  was  transferred"  {i.e.,  by  them)  "to  the  larger  stream  south  of 
Fort  Bragg,  which  now  bears  the  name  of  Noyo  River.  The  Indian 
name  of  Noyo  River  is  tce'mli-bida"  {i.e.,  Chemli-hida) .  The  mean- 
ing of  Noyo  is  unknown. 

Ojai,  in  Ventura  County,  is  given  by  Bailey  and  Gannett  as  mean 
ing  "nest."     This  signification  would  be  characteristic  of  civilized 
fancy  rather  than  of  Indian  geographical  usage.     The  word   is  a 
Chumash  place  name,  A  'hwai,  and  means  ' '  moon. ' ' 

Olanche,  in  Inyo  County,  may  be  named  from  an  Indian  source, 
though  its  origin  appears  to  be  unknown.  The  word  has  a  general 
Shoshonean  ring,  though  neither  the  Mono-Paiute-Bannock,  the  Sho- 
shoni-Panamint-Coso,  nor  the  Chemehuevi-Paiute-Kawaiisu  dialect 
groups  of  this  vicinity  contain  the  sound  "  1. "  The  nearest  Shoshonean 
language  in  which  "1"  occurs  is  the  Tiibatulabal  of  Kern  River,  across 
the  main  divide  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.  It  is  not  impossible  that  the 
word  is  taken  from  the  name  of  a  Yokuts  tribe  on  Tule  River  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  who  call  themselves  Yaudanchi, 
and  are  called  by  their  western  neighbors  Yaulanchi.  This  pronun- 
ciation, via  the  intermediate  form  Yolanchi,  is  not  very  different  from 
' '  Olanche. ' '  There  is  also  an  Olancha  Peak  in  the  crest  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  west  of  the  settlement  called  Olanche,  and  therefore  nearer  to 
the  habitat  of  the  Yaudanchi. 

Olcma,  in  Marin  County,  according  to  Barrett,  Pomo,  307,  is  prob- 
ably named  from  a  former  Coast  Miwok  village  Olemaloke,  "from 


52  University  of  California  Fuhlications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

6'le,  coyote,  and  lo'klo  or  lo'kla,  valley,  near  the  town  of  Olema  at  the 
southern  extremity  of  Tomales  Bay."  It  is  probable  that  this  name 
is  also  the  source  of  the  "tribal''  name  Olamentke,  frequently  ap- 
plied, since  the  time  of  the  Russian  settlement  in  California,  to  the 
Coast  Miwok  Indians  of  Bodega  Bay,  and  thence  to  those  of  Marin 
County  as  a  group. 

Oleta,  in  Amador  County,  is  in  Miwok  Indian  territory.  A  stem 
ole  appears  in  several  Miwok  dialects  with  the  meaning  "coyote" — 
compare  Olema, — and  -ta  or  -to  means  "at."  There  is,  however,  no 
evidence  that  this  suggested  derivation  is  the  actual  one.  Merriam, 
344,  gives  Tamm-oolette-sa  as  a  Miwok  village  near  Oleta,  but  this 
name  is  more  probably  connected  with  tamalin,  north. 

Olompali,  in  Marin  County,  is  from  Olompolli,  a  Coast  Miwok  vil- 
lage five  miles  south  of  the  present  Petaluma.  Barrett,  Porno,  310. 
Olom.  signifies  "south,"  but  the  meaning  of  polli  is  not  known. 

Omagar  Creek,  a  southerly  affluent  of  the  Klamath  River,  in  Del 
Norte  County,  has  a  name  that  is  derived  from  Omega',  the  Yurok 
designation  of  the  stream. 

Omjumi  Mountain,  in  Plumas  County,  is  in  Maidu  Indian  terri- 
tory, and  the  name  sounds  as  if  it  might  be  Maidu,  in  which  dialects 
om  means  "rock;"  but  the  derivation  is  not  recorded. 

Omo  Ranch,  in  Eldorado  County,  is  named  for  the  Northern  Sierra 
Miwok  village  Omo.    Merriam,  344. 

Omochumnes,  a  land  grant  in  Sacramento  County,  has  an  Indian 
name.  It  contains  the  ending  -umni  (or  -amni,  -imni),  borne  by  many 
Yokuts,  Miwok,  and  Maidu  tribal  or  group  names  in  the  valley  of  the 
San  Joaquin  and  Lower  Sacramento.  Oomoochah  is  given  by  Mer- 
riam, 349,  as  a  Northwestern  (Plains)  Miwok  village  at  Elk  Grove 
The  Umuchamni  or  Omochumne  would  therefore  be  the  people  of  this 
village.  According  to  several  authors  other  than  Merriam,  but  less 
definite  in  their  statements.  Elk  Grove  and  the  tracts  north  of  the 
Cosumnes  were  Maidu,  not  Miwok. 

Ono,  in  Shasta  County,  is  from  an  unknown  source.  In  the  Maidu 
language,  and  in  the  Southern  Wintun  dialect  of  the  vicinity  of 
Colusa,  ono  means  "head."  The  settlement  Ono  is  in  Northern  Win- 
tun  territory,  but  this  and  all  the  other  dialects  of  the  family,  except 
that  of  Colusa,  have  quite  different  words  for  "head,"  so  that  the 
derivation,  although  possible,  must  be  considered  entirely  vincon- 
firmed. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  53 

Orestimba,  a  land  grant  on  the  west  side  of  the  San  Joaquin  River, 
in  Stanislaus  and  Merced  counties,  at  the  mouth  of  Orestimba  Creek, 
is  a  name  of  unknown  origin.  The  first  part  of  the  word,  ores,  how- 
ever, denotes  ' '  bear ' '  in  the  Costanoan  dialects,  and  it  is  perhaps  more 
than  a  coincidence  that  an  affluent  of  Orestimba  Creek  is  known  as 
Oso,  that  is,  "bear,"  creek.  The  Costanoan  Indians  ranged  from  the 
coast  at  least  to  the  Mount  Diablo  Range,  and  perhaps  beyond ;  at 
any  rate,  whether  Orestimba  was  in  Yokuts  or  in  Costanoan  territory, 
the  Spaniards  would  have  reached  it  from  the  Costanoan  Indians. 

Orick,  in  Humboldt  County,  is  named  after  Arekw  or  Orekw  (the 
first  vowel  nearly  like  English  aw),  a  Yurok  village  on  the  south  side 
of  the  mouth  of  Redwood  Creek,  a  mile  and  a  half  below  the  present 
post-office  and  stage  station  of  the  same  name. 

Osagon  Creek,  in  Humboldt  County.  From  Yurok  Asegen,  a  place 
name  of  unknown  meaning. 

Otay,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  named  from  a  Diegueno  Indian  word, 
otai  or  otay  a,  ' '  brushy. ' ' 

Pachappa,  near  Riverside.    Of  unknown  origin. 

Pacoima,  in  Los  Angeles  County.  Probably  of  Gabrielino  Sho- 
shonean  origin,  but  unknown. 

Pahute  Mountain,  in  Kern  County,  is  named  from  the  same  tribe 
as  Piute,  which  see. 

Paicines,  or  Pajines,  in  San  Benito,  is  probably  a  tribal  name,  as 
stated  by  Sanchez,  160,  399.  The  region  was  occupied  by  Costanoan 
Indians,  many  of  whose  village  or  group  names  end  in  -n,  to  which 
the  Spaniards  frequently  added  the  plural  -es.  Compare  Mutsu-n, 
Rumse-n,  Olho-n-es,  Bolbo-n-es,  Salso-n-es;  also,  in  the  territory  of 
their  immediate  neighbors,  Essele-n,  Carqui-n-ez,  Suisu-n,  Ulpi-n-os. 

Pala,  in  San  Diego  County,  may  be  named,  as  sometimes  stated, 
from  Spanish  pala,  ' '  shovel, ' '  but  is  much  more  probably  from  Luiseno 
Shoshonean  pala,  ' '  water. ' '  At  least,  the  Luiseiio  accept  it  as  a  native 
place  name  of  this  significance.    Kroeber,  Shoshonean,  147. 

Pamo,  in  San  Diego  County,  was  called  Pamo  by  the  Diegueno 
Indians,  but  the  meaning  is  not  known. 

Panamint  Mountains  and  Valley,  in  Inyo  County,  are  named  from 
a  Shoshonean  tribe  in  the  region  of  the  range,  who  were  close  rela- 
tives of  the  Shoshoni  proper  of  central  and  northeastern  Nevada,  and 
identical,  or  practically  so,  with  the  Shikaviyam  or  Koso.  The  Mohave 
apply  the  name,  in  their  pronunciation  ' '  Vanyume, ' '  to  the  Serrano  of 


54  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

the  Mohave  River  and  adjacent  regions.  The  origin  of  the  word  is 
unknown. 

Paoha  Island,  in  Mono  Lake,  has  a  name  which  for  all  that  is  known 
to  the  contrary  may  be  from  a  Mono  or  Northern  Paiute  source.  It  is 
of  unknown  origin,  however,  and  in  its  present  form  looks  more  like 
a  Hawaiian  than  an  Indian  word.  The  Faoho  of  some  maps  appears 
to  be  only  a  misspelling. 

Pasadena  is  often  known  as  "the  Crown  City,"  and  Bailey  gives 
its  derivation  from  Chippewa  Weoquan  Pasadena,  "crown  of  the 
valley. ' '  The  Chippewa  may  now  have  a  descriptive  word  for  crown, 
but  such  a  conception  is  certainly  not  aboriginal.  No  unsophisticated 
and  very  few  civilized  Indians  would  think  of  calling  any  place  the 
"crown  of  the  valley."  The  phrase  has  all  the  appearance  of  having 
been  coined  by  an  American  out  of  Indian  or  imaginary  Indian  terms. 

Paskenta,  in  Tehama  County,  is  Central  Wintun  Paskenti,  * '  bank- 
under,  ' '  under  the  bank. 

Pauha,  in  Riverside  County,  was  in  Luiseiio  territory,  and  the  name 
sounds  as  if  it  had  been  taken  from  that  language,  but  nothing  appears 
to  be  known  as  to  its  source. 

Pauja,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  named  from  Diegueno  Pauha,  of 
unknown  significance. 

Pauma,  in  San  Diego  County,  is  Paumo,  a  still  inhabited  Luiseno 
village.    The  meaning  is  unknown.    Kroeber,  Shoshonean,  147. 

Pecwan  Creek,  Humboldt  County,  has  its  designation  from  the 
Yurok  village  of  Pekwan,  at  the  entrance  into  the  Klamath  of  the 
creek,  which  is  named,  according  to  Indian  custom,  after  the  spot  at 
its  mouth. 

Petaluma,  in  Sonoma  County,  is  named  from  an  aboriginal  Peta- 
luma,  which  stood  "on  a  low  hill  east  of  Petaluma  Creek  at  a  point 
probably  about  three  and  one-half  miles,  a  little  north  of  east,  of  the 
town  of  Petaluma. ' '  So  Barrett,  Porno,  310.  The  village  belonged  to 
the  Coast  Miwok,  and  its  name  in  their  dialect  signifies  ' '  flat-back, ' '  no 
doubt  from  the  appearance  of  the  elevation  on  which  it  was  situated. 

Piru,  in  Ventura  County,  according  to  Alexander  Taylor,-^  is 
named  from  a  Chumash  village  Piiru ;  according  to  the  writer 's  in- 
formation, the  name  of  the  village,  which  was  Shoshonean,  not  Chu- 
mash, was  Pi'idhuku  in  Shoshonean,  and  signified  a  kind  of  plant, 
perhaps  a  sedge  or  grass. 


25  California  Farmer,  July  24,  1863. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  55 

Pismo,  in  San  Luis  Obispo  County,  is  of  unknown  origin.  The 
place  was  in  Chumash  Indian  territory,  and  the  name  sounds  like  good 
Chumash. 

Piute,  places  in  Kern,  also  in  San  Bernardino  County,  and  a  spring 
in  eastern  San  Bernardino  County,  take  their  name  from  a  well- 
known,  or  rather  two  well-known,  Shoshonean  divisions,  too  wide- 
spread and  too  loosely  organized  to  be  truly  designable  as  tribes,  but 
each  possessing  a  considerable  uniformity  of  speech  and  customs.  The 
Southern  Paiute,  who  appear  to  have  been  first  called  by  this  name, 
lived  in  southwestern  Utah,  northernmost  Arizona,  southern  Nevada, 
and  southeastern  California,  and  may  be  said  to  include  the  Cheme- 
huevi  and  Kawaiisu.  Their  language  is  similar  to  Ute.  The  Northern 
Paiute,  who  disclaim  this  name,  although  it  is  universally  applied  to 
them  by  Americans  in  their  habitat,  and  who  have  also  been  called 
Paviotso  in  literature,  speak  a  dialect  virtually  identical  with  Ban- 
nock. They  live  in  eastern  Oregon,  northwestern  Nevada,  an  eastern 
fringe  of  northern  and  central  California,  and  apparently  shade  into 
the  Mono.  Thus  the  Indians  of  Owens  River  Valley,  who  appear  to 
be  substantially  Monos,  are  commonly  called  Paiutes.  The  usual 
American  pronunciation  of  Paiute  is  Paiyut,  but  the  meaning  of  the 
word,  which  has  been  interpreted  both  as  "water  Ute"  and  "true 
Ute,"  cannot  be  considered  as  positively  determined.^"  Most  of  the 
places  in  California  called  Piute  or  Pahute  are  in  or  near  the  range  of 
the  Southern  Paiute  or  their  close  kindred;  but  a  Piute  mountain 
and  creek  in  Tuolumne  County  are  apparently  named  after  the  Mono- 
speaking  Indians  of  Mono  County,  who  affiliate  with  the  "false"  or 
Northern  Paiute. 

Pogolimi,  a  land  grant  in  Sonoma  County,  bears  an  unidentified 
name  which  may  be  Indian. 

Pohono  Falls,  in  Yosemite  Valley,  appears  to  be  of  Miwok  Indian 
origin.  These  Indians,  however,  do  not  recognize  the  often  quoted 
meaning  "evil  wind,"  and  connect  the  word  rather  with  Pohonichi, 
the  Yokuts  name  of  a  Miwok  group  in  the  vicinity,  in  which  -chi  is  an 
ending  denoting  "people." 

Porno,  a  post-oflfice  in  Potter  Valley,  Mendocino  County,  embodies 
the  name  Pomo  or  Poma — meaning  "people"  and  much  used  as  a  suf- 
fix of  village  names — which  in  literature  and  popular  usage  has  come 
to  designate  a  large  group  or  linguistic  family  of  Indians  in  Mendo- 


26  See,  however,  W.  L.  Marsden,  in  American  Anthropologist,  n.s.  xiii,  724-725, 
1911,  who  presents  good  evidence  favoring  the  meaning  "water  Ute." 


56  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

cino,  Lake,  and  Sonoma  counties.  It  was,  however,  also  the  name  of 
one  particular  village  of  the  Northern  Pomo,  which  stood  at  the  present 
Potter  Valley  flour  mill,  south  of  the  post-office,  and  is  probably  the 
source  of  the  name  of  the  town.    Barrett,  Pomo,  140. 

Poonkiny,  in  Mendocino  County,  is  Yuki  punkini  (more  exactly 
punk'ini),  meaning  "wormwood." 

Posolmi,  a  land  grant  in  Santa  Clara  County,  may  be  a  name  of 
Costanoan  origin,  but  is  not  identifiable. 

Poway,  in  San  Diego  County,  was  in  Diegueno  territory.  The 
neighboring  Luiseiio  today  call  the  place  Pawai  (Kroeber,  Shoshonemi, 
149 )  ;  the  Diegueno  use  the  same  term ;  but  whether  this  designation  is 
native  with  either  tribe,  or  borrowed  by  them  from  the  whites,  is  not 
certain. 

Puta  or  Putah  or  Putos  Creek,  has  sometimes  been  said  to  be  of 
Indian  origin,  but  appears  to  be  from  the  Spanish  puta,  "harlot." 

Quati,  a  grant  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  bears  an  unidentified 
name. 

Bequa,  in  Del  Norte  County,  is  said  to  have  been  named  after  a 
member  of  the  Requa  family  prominent  in  California.  It  is  more 
likely  that  the  origin  is  from  Rekwoi,  an  important  Yurok  village  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Klamath,  just  below  the  present  American  town. 

Sahoha,  in  Riverside  County,  is  Luiseno  Sovovo  (both  "v's" 
bilabial),  a  place  or  village  name,  meaning  unknown.  Kroeber,  Sho- 
shonean,  147. 

Samagatuma,  near  Cuyamaca  in  San  Diego  County.  Unknown. 
If  Indian,  Diegueno. 

Sanel,  in  Mendocino  County,  is  given  by  Bailey  as  named  after  a 
"tribe,"  which  is  correct  in  the  sense  of  a  village.  According  to  Bar- 
rett, Pomo,  171,  this  rancheria  was  called  Shanel  (cane'l),  from  shane 
(cane'),  "sweat-house,"  and  was  a  populous  place  "on  the  south  bank 
of  McDowell  Creek  at  a  point  just  south  of  the  town  of  Sanel  or  Old 
Hopland."  From  this  village  was  named  the  Senel  land  grant.  An- 
other Pomo  village  called  Shanel,  which,  however,  does  not  appear  to 
have  entered  into  American  geographical  nomenclature,  was  situated 
farther  north,  in  Potter  Valley. 

Sapaque  Valley,  on  the  line  of  San  Luis  Obispo  and  Monterey 
counties,  has  an  unidentified  name.    If  Indian,  it  is  of  Salinan  origin. 

Saticoy,  in  Ventura  County,  goes  back  to  a  Chumash  original 
Sati'koi,  a  village  in  the  vicinity. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  57 

Scqiian  or  Sycuan  or  Cycuan  reservation,  also  a  peak,  in  San  Diego 
County,  has  its  name  from  a  Dieguefio  Indian  word,  sekwan,  denotnig 
a  kind  of  bush. 

Sequit,  the  third  name  of  the  Malibu  or  Topanga  land  grant  in  Los 
Angeles  county,  is  unidentified,  but,  like  these  two  other  names,  evi- 
dently of  Indian  origin. 

Sesma,  in  Tehama  County,  bears  an  unidentified  name. 

Sespe,  in  Ventura  County,  is  named  from  a  Chumash  village, 
Se-ek-pe,  Shehpe,  or  Sekspe;  the  meaning  of  the  word  may  be  "fish." 

Shasta.     The  name  of  this  county  is  involved  in  obscurity.     The 

county  is  obviously  named  after  the  far-visible  gigantic  mountain.  The 

suggested  derivation  from  French  chaste,  "pure,"  as  applicable  to  its 

perpetual  snows,  is  unlikely.     Dr.  R.  B.  Dixon,  who  is  the  authority 

above  all  others  on  the  Shasta  group  of  Indians,  says :-' 

"The  earlier  forms — such  as  Saste,  Shaste,  Sasty,  Shasty,  Chasty,  Shastl, 
Shastika — have  given  place  to  the  form  Shasta.  .  .  .  The  origin  and  meaning 
of  this  term  .  .  .  are  both  obscure.  So  far  as  my  information  goes,  it  is  not  a 
term  used  by  the  Shasta  for  themselves,  either  as  a  whole  or  in  part,  although 
there  is  some  doubt  as  to  whether  or  not  the  term  may  not  have  been  used  to 
designate  a  portion  of  the  stock,  i.e.,  that  about  the  eastern  portion  of  Shasta 
Valley.  Its  use,  however,  as  such,  is  recent.  It  is  not  a  term  for  the  Indians 
of  this  stock  in  the  languages  of  the  surrounding  stocks,  whose  names  for  the 
people  are  known,  although  in  use  by  both  Achoma'wi  and  Atsuge'wi.  It  is 
emphatically  denied  by  the  Shasta  that  it  is  a  place-name  for  any  section  of 
the  territory  occupied  by  them,  and  indeed  there  is  some  question  as  to 
whether  it  is  even  a  word  proper  to  their  language.  After  persistent  inquiry, 
the  only  information  secured  which  throws  any  light  on  the  matter  is  to  the 
effect  that  about  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  there  was  an  old  man  living  in  Shasta 
Valley  whose  personal  name  was  Shastika  (Susti'ka).  He  is  reported  to  have 
been  a  man  of  importance;  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  name  Shasta  came 
from  this  Indian,  an  old  and  well-known  man  in  the  days  of  my  informant 's 
father,  who  was  living  at  the  time  of  the  earliest  settlement  in  this  section, — 
in  the  '50 's.  Inasmuch  as  the  suffix  fea  is  the  regular  subjective  suffix,  we 
should  have  susti  as  the  real  name  of  this  individual,  from  which  the  earlier 
forms  of  Shasty,  etc.,  could  easily  have  been  derived.  The  derivation  from  the 
Russian  CHIST Y,  meaning  ' '  white  [sic] ,  clean, ' ' — a  term  supposed  to  have  been 
applied  by  the  settlers  at  Fort  Ross  to  Mount  Shasta, — is  obviously  improbable. 
The  matter  is  further  complicated  by  the  difficulty  of  clearing  up  the  precise 
relationships  of  the  so-called  "Chasta"  of  Oregon,  and  of  explaining  the  re- 
currence of  the  same  term  in  the  name  of  the  Athabascan  tribe  of  the  Chasta- 
Costa28  of  the  Oregon  coast. ' ' 

Dr.  Dixon,  however,  also  says  that  the  Shasta  are  called  Sasti'dji 
by  the  Achomawi  and  Susti'dji  by  the  Atsugewi.    These  names  would 


27  "The  Shasta,"  in  Bull.  Am.  Museum  Natural  History,  xvii,  384,  1907. 

28  Pronounced  ' '  Shasta-Costa. ' '     The  spelling  with  "  Ch  "  points  to  an  original 
French  use  of  the  word  in  Oregon. 


58  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

point  to  an  Indian  origin  for  the  tribal  term  and  geographical  designa- 
tion, were  it  not  entirely  possible  that  they  have  but  recently  been 
coined  or  derived,  from  the  American  name  of  the  Shasta,  by  these 
other  Indians  who  now  know  English  in  addition  to  their  own  dialects. 

The  origin  of  the  word  must  therefore  be  regarded  as  still  unde- 
termined, although  almost  certainly  Indian. 

The  current  derivation  of  the  word,  as  given,  for  instance,  by 
Maslin,  is  from  a  tribal  name  meaning  "stone  house  or  cave  dwellers." 
This  erroneous  tradition  seems  to  go  back  to  a  hasty  misunderstanding 
of  a  statement  by  Steele  on  page  120  of  the  Report  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Indian  Affairs  for  1864,  to  the  effect  that  "the  Shasta  In- 
dians, known  in  their  language  as  Weohow — it  meaning  stone  house, 
from  the  large  cave  in  their  country — occupy  the  land  east  of  Shasta 
River,"  etc.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  alleged  meaning  does  not  apply 
to  "Shasta"  at  all,  but  to  the  native  name  "Weohow"  for  which  the 
Americans  use  Shasta.  Indiscriminateness  of  this  sort  is  typical  of 
most  of  the  attempts  to  explain  native  names  in  California. 

Simi,  in  Ventura  County,  is  Ventura  dialect  Chumash  Shimiyi  or 
Shimii,  a  place  or  village.  Indian  informants  can  give  no  etymology, 
and  Bailey's  signification  of  "source  of  water"  appears  unfounded. 

Sisar  Canyon,  in  Ventura  County,  derives  its  name  from  a  Chu- 
mash village  site  Sis 'a. 

Siskiyou,  the  name  of  the  county,  is  a  term  the  significance  of 
which,  according  to  Maslin,  has  "never  been  authentically  deter- 
mined, ' '  although  it  has  ' '  generally  been  assumed  "  to  be  the  ' '  name  of 
a  tribe."  He  cites,  however,  a  suggestion  that  it  is  a  corruption  of 
French  "Six  Caillj^ux,"  applied  in  1832  to  a  ford  on  the  Umpqua 
river  in  Oregon  because  of  six  stepping  stones.  This  story  looks  too 
much  like  a  typical  case  of  subsequent  folk-etymology  to  engender 
much  confidence.  The  usual  assumption  of  an  Indian  origin,  though 
not  necessarily  from  a  tribal  name,  is  more  credible.  The  source,  if 
aboriginal,  is,  however,  at  least  as  likely  to  have  been  Oregonian  as 
Californian. 

Sisquoc,  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  is  unidentified.  It  looks  to  be 
Chumash  Indian. 

SMikum  Rock,  a  mountain  in  Siskiyou  County,  is  apparently  named 
from  the  Chinook  jargon  word  skukum,  "strong."  This  trade  dialect 
barely  penetrated  to  the  northernmost  parts  of  California,  and  the 
name  was  therefore  almost  certainly  applied  by  white  men. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  59 

Sohoyame,  in  San  Diego  County,  may  be  Indian.  It  is  unidenti- 
fied. 

Somis,  in  Ventura  County,  has  a  Chumash  name,  the  appelation  of 
a  village  variously  rendered  S  'ohmiis,  Somus,  Somes,  and  Somo.^" 

Sonoma  County  is  named  after  the  mission  and  city  of  Sonoma. 
The  translation  "valley  of  the  moon"  is  fanciful.  It  has  also  been 
said,  according  to  Barrett,  Porno,  313,  that  the  term  is  of  Spanish 
origin  and  was  given  as  a  name  to  a  chief  at  Sonoma  by  the  Spaniards. 
The  last  part  of  this  statement  is  no  doubt  correct,  since  Dr.  Barrett 's 
Indian  informants  recalled  a  Coast  Miwok  chief,  properly  called  Hoi- 
pustolopokse,  who  was  commonly  known  as  Sonoma.  But  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  as  in  the  case  of  Solano  the  individual  was  so 
dubbed  from  the  Mexican  establishment.  Dr.  Barrett  gives  what  must 
be  regarded  the  most  likely  derivation  when  he  says  that  there  is,  ' '  in 
the  village  names  of  the  Yukian  Wappo  dialect,  the  territory  of  which 
extends  to  within  a  few  miles  of  Sonoma,  a  constantly  recurring  end- 
ing -tso'noma,  derived  from  tso,  earth  or  ground,  and  no'ma,  village, 
as  micewal-tso'noma ;  and  it  seems  probable  that  this  is  the  true  source 
of  the  name  Sonoma." 

Soquel,  in  Santa  Cruz  County,  also  written  Shoquel  in  the  name  of 
the  land  grant,  is  a  Costanoan  village  name.  Alexander  Taylor  cites 
"Osocalis  (Souquel)  "  as  one  of  the  rancherias  from  which  the  mission 
of  Santa  Cruz  had  neophytes.^" 

Sotoyome,  a  land  grant  in  Sonoma  County,  is  given  by  Bailey  as 
from  Spanish  soto  yo  me,  literally,  "forest  I  me,"  which  he  makes  by 
a  peculiar  idiom  into  "my  ow^n  forest."  What  is  perhaps  the  same 
name  in  another  spelling,  Sotoyama,  he  interprets  as  a  compound  of 
Spanish  soto,  forest,  and  "Indian"  yama,  lake — which  would  be 
equally  remarkable.  Barrett,  Pomo,  218,  says  that  the  chief  of  the 
Southern  Pomo  village  of  Wotokkaton  (on  the  Luce  Ranch  a  short 
distance  upstream  from  Healdsburg  and  across  the  Russian  River 
from  the  town),  was  known  as  Santiago;  also  as  Manteca,  literally 
"lard,"  evidently  a  Spanish  nickname  corresponding  to  English 
* ' Fat ; ' '  and  also  as  Soto ;  and  that  "it  is  from  this  latter  name  that 
Sotoyome  is  derived,  the  latter  part  of  the  name  signifying  'the  home 
of. '  ' '  Whether  Soto  is  a  third  Spanish  name  of  this  conspicuous  indi- 
vidual, or  Indian,  is  not  certain ;  but  it  is  clear  that  even  if  the  word 
Sotoyome  is  good  Pomo  it  is  not  an  ancient  name  of  a  locality,  for 


29  Handbook  of  American  Indians,  Bur.  Am.  Ethn.  Bull.  30,  part  ii,  615. 

30  California  Farmer,  April  5,  1860. 


60  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

the  California  Indians,  before  contact  with  the  whites,  never  based 
the  permanent  appelation  of  a  village  or  locality  on  the  name  of  a 
person.  It  seems  therefore  that  Sotoyome  is  an  Indian  place-name 
formed  by  Indians  from  a  personal  name  in  Spanish  times. 

Soulajule,  a  land  grant  in  Marin  County,  appears  to  be  named 
from  an  Indian  word,  but  this  has  not  been  identified. 

Suey,  a  land  grant  in  San  Luis  Obispo  and  Santa  Barbara  coun- 
ties, bears  an  unidentified  name.  The  only  suggestion,  and  it  is  a 
slender  one,  is  afforded  by  Suiesia,  mentioned  by  Taylor^^  as  a  Chu- 
mash  village  connected  with  Santa  Ynez  mission. 

Suisun  Bay,  and  Suisun  City,  in  Solano  County,  bear  the  name  of 
a  prominent  * 'tribe,"  that  is,  probably  a  village,  of  the  Patwin  or 
Southern  Wintun  Indians  of  this  region.  This  village  is  often  men- 
tioned in  Spanish  sources,  but  has  not  been  exactly  located. 

Surper  appears  on  some  maps  as  a  settlement  on  the  Klamath 
River,  in  Humboldt  County.  It  is  occupied  only  by  one  or  two  Yurok 
Indian  houses,  representing  the  former  native  village  of  Serper. 

Suscol  Creek,  in  Napa  County,  is  the  aboriginal  Southern  Wintun 
village  of  Suskol. 

Tahoose  Pass,  in  the  crest  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  Taboose 
Creek,  in  Inyo  County.  Unidentified,  but,  judging  from  the  sound, 
very  likely  of  Mono  Shoshonean  origin. 

Tache,  Laguna  de,  a  land  grant  in  Fresno  County,  is  named  for 
the  Tachi  tribe  of  Yokuts  Indians,  who  lived  in  the  slough-intersected 
region  at  the  outlet  of  Tulare  Lake,  near  by. 

Tahoe  Lake  is  said  to  be  named  from  Washo  tah-hoo-he,  "big 
water. ' '  This  etymology  is  given  by  Bailey,  and  is  also  current.  There 
is  very  little  on  record  concerning  the  Washo  language.  Intrinsically 
the  above  derivation  seems  reasonable,  but  the  accepted  etymologies 
of  California  Indian  names  are  so  much  more  often  wrong  than  right, 
that  in  view  of  the  ordinary  word  in  Washo  for  "water"  being  time 
and  for  "large,"  tiyeli,  some  doubt  may  not  be  hypercritical.  Five 
minutes'  unprejudiced  inquiry  of  an  intelligent  elderly  Washo  would 
settle  the  point  positively. 

Tahquitz,  one  of  the  peaks  of  the  San  Jacinto  Mountains  in  River- 
side County,  also  a  nearby  creek,  is  named  from  Takwish  (or  Dak  wish 
— one  spelling  is  as  correct  as  the  other,  since  the  initial  sound  is  in- 
termediate between  English  "t"  and  "d"),  a  mythological  character 
of  the  Luisefio  and  Cahuilla  Indians,  associated  with  meteors  or  per- 


31  California  Farmer,  October  18,  1861. 


1916]  Eroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  61 

haps  more  exactly  ball-lightning,  usually  pictured  as  a  cannibal,  and 
believed  to  have  had  his  home,  or  still  to  have  it,  on  or  in  Mount  San 
Jacinto. 

Taijiguas,  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  according  to  Alexander  Tay- 
lor, is  named  from  a  Chumash  village. ^- 

Tajauta,  a  land  grant  in  Los  Angeles  County,  is  named  from  an 
unknown  source.  If  Indian,  it  would  be  from  the  Gabrielino  dialect ; 
and  its  sound  makes  such  an  origin  possible. 

Tallac,  in  Eldorado  County,  was,  like  Lake  Tahoe,  in  Washo  ter- 
ritory, but  there  is  apparently  no  information  available  to  show 
whether  or  not  the  word  is  Indian. 

Tallowa  Lake,  a  portion  of  Lake  Earl  in  Del  Norte  County,  is 
named  from  Tolo'okw,  the  Yurok  name  of  an  Athabascan  village  in 
the  vicinity,  the  current  ethnological  designation  of  the  tribe,  Tolowa, 
deriving  from  the  same  source:  ni-tolowo,  "I  speak  Tolowa,"  i.e.,  the 
Athabascan  dialect  of  Del  Norte  County. 

Tamalpais  Mountain,  in  Marin  County,  does  not  contain  Spanish 
pais,  "country."  It  is  Coast  Miwok  Tamal-pais,  "bay  mountain." 
Barrett,  Porno,  308. 

Tapo  or  Tapu  Canyon,  near  Simi  in  Ventura  County,  is  named 
from  a  Chumash  original  Ta'apu,  "yucca,"  an  inhabited  site. 

Tecopa,  in  Inyo  County,  is  said  by  Bailey  to  have  been  the  name 
of  an  Indian  chief,  which  may  or  may  not  be  the  case.  There  is  noth- 
ing in  the  sound  of  the  word  to  prevent  its  having  had  a  Shoshonean 
origin. 

Tecuya  or  Tacuya  Creek,  in  Kern  County,  and  Tecuya  Mountain 
at  the  head  of  this  stream,  are  named  after  Tokya,  the  name  applied 
by  the  Yokuts  tribes  to  the  Chumash  Indians,  a  division  of  whom  oc- 
cupied the  region  in  question. 

Tehachapi,  also  Tehichipi,  the  famous  pass,  and  a  town  and  moun- 
tain range,  in  Kern  County.  The  name  is  of  Indian  origin.  The  pass 
was  in  the  territory  of  the  Shoshonean  Kawaisu,  but  it  has  not  been 
ascertained  whether  the  word  occurs  in  their  speech.  The  Yokuts  to 
the  north,  however,  call  the  region,  or  some  spot  in  it,  Tahiehipi,  or 
more  usually  Tahichpiu,  -u  being  the  regular  locative  case  ending. 

Tehama,  County  is,  as  Maslin  says,  named  from  an  Indian  ' '  tribe, ' ' 
that  is,  Wintun  village,  which  probably  stood  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Sacramento  River  near  or  at  the  present  town  of  Tehama. 


32  California  Farmer,  October  18,  1861. 


^ 


62  University  of  California  Publications  iyi  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

Tehipite  Valley  and  Dome,  on  upper  Kings  River  in  Fresno  Coun- 
ty, appear  to  derive  their  name  from  an  unidentified  word  of  Mono 
origin.  The  location  of  the  places  and  sound  of  the  name  indicate 
this, 

Tejunga  or  Tujunga  River,  in  Los  Angeles  County,  is  evidently  a 
Gabrielino  Shoshonean  place  name,  as  evidenced  by  the  locative  case 
ending  -nga. 

Temecula,  in  Riverside  County,  is  Luiseno  Tenieku,  meaning  un- 
known, a  village  of  this  Shoshonean  division.  Kroeber,  Shoshonean, 
147.    Teme-t  is  "sun"  in  Luiseno. 

Tenaya,  a  stream  and  lake  draining  into  Yosemite  Valley,  are 
named  after  a  Miwok  chief,  head  of  the  Yosemite  Indians  at  the  time 
of  discovery. 

Tepusquet,  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  is  a  name  that  has  the  ring 
of  a  Chumash  Indian  word,  but  is  of  unknown  origin. 

Tequepis,  a  land  grant  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  is  named  from  a 
Chumash  village  near  San  Marcos.^^ 

Terwah  Creek,  a  northerly  affluent  of  the  Klamath  River,  in  Del 
Norte  County,  is  named  from  Terwer,  as  the  Yurok  Indians  call  it. 

Tiee  Valley,  in  Contra  Costa  County.    Unidentified. 

Tiltill  Mountain  and  Creek,  in  Tuolumne  County.    Unidentified, 

Tinaquaic,  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  has  a  name  presumably  of 
Chumash  Indian  origin,  but  unidentified. 

Tinemaha,  or  Tinemakar,  in  Inyo  County,  may  be  of  "Paiute" 
origin. 

Tish-Tang-a-Tang  Creek,  in  Humboldt  County,  is  not,  as  given  by 
Gannett  and  repeated  by  Bailey,  a  fanciful  name  indicating  the 
splashing  of  water,  but  the  American  rendering  of  Hupa  Djishtanga- 
ding,^*  the  name  of  a  village  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek. 

Tissaack,  South  Dome  in  Yosemite,  is,  fide  Powers,  364,  367,  South- 
ern Miwok  Tisseyak,  the  name  of  a  woman  who  according  to  tradition 
was  transformed  into  the  mountain.  California  Indian  legendary 
names  of  persons,  however,  almost  always  have  meanings;  and  the 
significance  of  this  word  is  not  yet  known. 

Tocaloma,  in  Marin  County,  is  given  by  Bailey  as  meaning  "the 
hooded  hill"  in  Spanish.  This  is  improbable.  Toca  means  a  "hood" 
or  "toque,"  but  "hood-hill"  would  be  Loma  Toca  rather  than  Toca- 
loma.   The  place  is  in  Coast  Miwok  territory,  and  sounds  like  a  Coast 


33  Alexander  Taylor,  California  Farmer,  October  18,  1861;  April  24,  1863. 

34  Goddard,  present  series,  i,  12,  1903 :  Djietanadin. 


1916]  Kroeher :  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  63 

Miwok  word.  The  ending  suggests  -yome,  meaning  "place"  in  this 
language;  especially  as  1  and  y  interchange  in  some  Miwok  dialects. 
It  may  be  added  that  in  Central  Sierra  Miwok  dialect  tokoloma  means 
' '  land  salamander. ' ' 

Tolay  Creek,  in  Sonoma  County,  appears  to  have  an  unidentified 
Indian  name.  There  was  a  Coast  Miwok  rancheria  Tuli  near  Sonoma 
City.    Barrett,  Porno,  313. 

Tolenas,  or  Tolenos,  in  Solano  County,  is  apparently  named  from  a 
South  Wintun  Indian  village.  Taylor,  quoted  in  Bancroft,  Native 
Races,  i,  452.  Sanchez,  268,  436,  suggests  a  misspelling  of  Yolenos, 
perhaps  Yolenos,  as  the  Spaniards  might  have  called  the  Yolo  Indians. 

Toluca,  "near  Los  Angeles,  is  probably  derived  from  Tolujaa,  or 
Tilijaes,  a  tribe  among  the  original  ones  at  San  Juan  Capistrano,  al- 
though there  is  also  a  place  named  Toluca  in  Mexico."    Sanchez,  439. 

Tomales  Bay,  in  Marin  County,  is  from  Coast  Miwok  tamal,  "bay." 
There  is  no  connection  with  Spanish  tamales.    Barrett,  Porno,  308. 

Toolwass,  in  Kern  County,  is  of  unknown  origin,  but  suggests 
toloache,  often  vulgarly  pronounced  tuluach,  the  Spanish  name  of  the 
jimson-weed,  Datura  meteloides.  This  derivation,  however,  is  only  a 
guess. 

Toowa  Range,  in  Tulare  County.  Unknown,  but  a  Shoshonean, 
probably  Mono,  origin  is  indicated. 

Topanga,  one  of  the  three  names  of  the  Topanga-Malibu-Sequit 
land  grant  in  Los  Angeles  County,  also  applied  specifically  to  a  canyon 
four  miles  west  of  Santa  Monica,  is  a  place  designation  taken  from 
the  Gabrielino  Shoshonean  dialect,  as  shown  by  the  locative  ending 
-nga. 

Topa  Topa  or  Topo  Topo  Mountain,  in  Ventura  County,  is  a  Chu- 
mash  place  name.  Taylor  gives  Topotopow,^^  Henshaw 's^**  and  the 
writer's  informants  Si-toptopo;  and  Henshaw  locates  the  rancheria 
at  Nordhoff.  The  prefix  -si  in  the  Indian  original  means  "his"  or 
"its." 

Truckee  City  and  River,  in  Nevada  and  Placer  counties,  are  named 
after  a  Northern  Paiute  chief.  See  Gannett.  The  word  appears  con- 
siderably corrupted,  but  the  exact  original  pronunciation  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  recorded. 

Tulucay,  a  grant  in  Napa  County,  is  named  from  Tulukai  or 
Tuluka,  meaning  "red,"  a  Southern  "Wintun  or  Patwin  village  near 
the  State  Hospital  at  Napa.    Barrett,  Porno,  293. 


35  California  Farmer,  May  4,  1860. 

36  Bur.  Am.  Ethn.,  Bull.  30,  ii,  582   (a=ro). 


64  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

Tunnahora  Peak,  in  the  crest  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  near  Mount 
Whitney.  Unknown.  Possibly  Shoshonean,  Mono  dialect.  Compare 
Tunemah  Peak  and  Pass  not  far  to  the  north. 

Tuolumne  County  is  evidently  named  after  the  river.  According 
to  Maslin,  Tuolumne  is  a  "corruption  of  the  Indian  word  'Talma- 
lamne'  which  signifies  'stone  house  or  cave'  " — and  which  was  the 
name  of  a  large  tribe  of  Indians  who  lived  on  both  sides  of  the  river. ' ' 
There  was  a  tribe  (Kroeber,  Miwok,  373;  Merriam,  351)  called  Tawa- 
limni,  Towolurane,  or  Tuolumne,  possibly  Miwok  but  more  probably 
Yokuts,  in  the  plains  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
lower  Tuolumne  and  Stanislaus  rivers  up  as  far  as  about  Knights 
Ferry.  The  word  Tawalimni,  which  perhaps  was  really  Tawalamni 
or  Tawalumni,  would  easily  give  rise,  in  either  English  or  Spanish,  to 
Tuolumne.  The  signification  is  unknown,  but  its  ending,  -imni,  -amni, 
or  -umni,  occurs  in  many  names  of  Yokuts  tribes  and  Miwok  and 
Maidu  villages  in  the  valley  portion  of  the  San  Joaquin-Sacramento 
drainage.  Usually  the  stems  of  such  words  cannot  be  assigned  a  mean- 
ing even  by  Indians.  The  interpretation  "stone  house  or  cave"  is 
very  unlikely,  since  the  California  Indians  never  built  in  stone,  and 
the  term  would  therefore  be  applicable  only  to  dwellers  in  caves  or 
rock  shelters,  which  demand  a  mountain  habitat,  whereas  both  the 
location  of  the  Tawalimni  and  the  distribution  of  nearly  all  Indian 
place  names  ending  in  -imni  seem  to  be  confined  to  the  plains. 

Turup  Creek,  in  Del  Norte  County,  is  named  from  the  Yurok  vil- 
lage Turip,  on  the  south  side  of  the  lower  Klamath  River. 

Tzabaco,  a  land  grant  in  Sonoma  County,  may  bear  an  Indian 
name,  though  it  suggests  Spanish  tahaco. 

Uhe  Hebe,  appearing  on  some  maps  as  northeast  of  Independence, 
Inyo  County,  is  an  unidentified  name. 

Ukiah,  the  county  seat  of  Mendocino  County,  is  named  after  the 
Yokaya  grant  extending  from  about  four  miles  north  of  Hopland  to 
north  of  Calpella,  and  including,  therefore,  Ukiah  Valley.  The  word, 
according  to  Barrett,  Pomo,  168,  is  Central  Pomo,  yo,  "south,"  and 
haia,  "valley. ' '  Yokaia  is  today  the  Indian  name  of  a  rancheria  south- 
southeast  of  the  city  of  Ukiah.  Dr.  Barrett  says  that  the  inhabitants 
moved  to  the  site  only  since  the  American  occupation,  after  their  re- 
turn from  the  former  Mendocino  reservation  (on  the  coast  between 
Noyo  and  Ten  Mile  rivers).  The  reservation  was  discontinued  in 
1867.  Before  the  coming  of  the  whites,  according  to  the  same  author- 
ity, the  people  of  the  present  Yokaia  rancheria  lived  "chiefly  at  c6'- 


1916]  Eroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  65 

kadjal  (Shokadjal),  a  short  distance  northwest."  The  designation 
Yokaia  is,  however,  unquestionably  older  than  the  modern  Indian 
village,  as  shoM'n  by  the  grant  name.  "Whether  it  originally  applied  to 
the  entire  valley,  to  a  part  of  it,  or  to  some  native  settlement  in  it,  is 
uncertain,  but  the  interpretation  "south-valley"  must  be  considered 
the  correct  one.  M.  A.  E.  Sherwood,  cited  by  Barrett,  Porno,  169,  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  definition  "deep  valley,"  repeated  by  Bailey.  Yo, 
it  is  true,  is  "down,"  "under,"  or  "hole"  in  several  Pomo  dialects, 
but  appears  normally  as  a  suffix,  whereas  yo,  '  *  south, ' '  like  other  terms 
of  direction,  is  regularly  first  in  compound  words. 

Ulatus  or  Ulatis  or  Ualtis  Creek,  in  Solano  County,  bears  a  name 
evidently  connected  with  that  of  the  South  Wintun  or  Patwin  Indian 
division  called  Olulato,  Ululato,  or  Ullulata.  Compare,  Powers,  218, 
and  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  i,  452,  453. 

Ulistac,  a  land  grant  in  Santa  Clara  County.  The  word  is.  obvious- 
ly of  Costanoan  origin,  as  evidenced  by  the  regular  Costanoan  locative 
case  ending  -tak,  frequent  on  village  names ;  but  the  name  is  not  other- 
wise identifiable.  It  suggests  Juristac,  which  see.  L  and  r  alternate 
in  Costanoan  dialects,  and  an  initial  h  would  be  likely  to  be  repre- 
sented by  j  by  one  Spanish  writer,  and  omitted  altogether  by  an- 
other. Ores, ' '  bear, ' '  and  uri,  uli, ' '  head, "  "  hair, "  or  "  forehead, ' '  are 
the  only  Costanoan  words  known  to  the  author  which  suggest  the  stem. 

Ulpinos — Rancho  de  los  Ulpinos — a  land  grant  in  Solano  County, 
is  evidently  named  after  the  Chulpun  or  Khoulpouni  Indians.  The 
location  of  the  grant,  on  the  west  side  of  the  lower  Sacramento  river, 
would  make  these  Indians  of  Wintun  stock,  according  to  all  ethno- 
logical maps.  Merriam,  348,  however,  declares  the  Hulpoomne  (for 
the  ending  -umni,  see  Tuolumne)  to  have  been  a  Northwestern 
(Plains)  Mi  wok  tribe  whose  principal  rancheria  was  near  Freeport, 
nine  miles  south  of  Sacramento  City,  and  on  the  east  side  of  the 
river. 

Un  Bully  Mountain,  between  Siskiyou  and  Trinity  counties,  is  in 
Wintun  territory,  and  "Bully"  is  apparently  Wintun  holi,  literally 
"spirit,"  but  much  used  in  mountain  names:  compare  Yallo  Bally. 
The  meaning  of  Un  is  not  known. 

Unumhum,  or  Umunhum  Mountain,  in  Santa  Clara  County,  is 
named  from  an  unidentified  source. 

Usal,  in  Mendocino  County,  pronounced  Yusawl,  was  in  Atha- 
bascan territory  but  appears  to  be  the  Pomo  word  Yoshol,  containing 


66  University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

the  stem  yo,  "south."  Sho  is  ''east,"  and  -I-  an  ending  of  terms  of 
direction  in  the  same  language ;  but  it  is  not  known  whether  these 
elements  enter  into  the  word. 

Wahtoke,  in  Fresno  County,  appears  to  be  Yokuts  ivatak,  "pine- 
nut."  A  "tribe"  called  Wattokes,  living  "high  up  on  King's  River" 
— and  therefore  presumably  Monos — are  mentioned  in  the  Report  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  for  1857,  p.  399,^^  and  elsewhere. 
This  tribe  has,  however,  not  been  identified. 

Wanamina,  in  Shasta  County,  is  unknown  and  may  be  Indian, 
coined,  or  borrowed. 

Wapanse  Creek,  in  Plumas  County.  The  origin  of  the  name  is  un- 
known. 

Wasioja,  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  is  unidentified.  The  combina- 
tion of  Spanish  j  with  w  that  does  not  occur  in  that  language,  suggests 
coinage  or  at  best  corruption. 

Wassama  Creek,  in  Madera  County,  is  named  from  Was-sa'-ma,  a 
Southern  Sierra  Miwok  village  on  the  stream,  near  Ahwahnee.  Mer- 
riam,  346. 

Wauhah  Ridge,  southeast  of  Sunol,  in  Alameda  County.  The  name 
suggests  an  Indian  origin  but  is  unknown. 

Waukell  Creek,  entering  the  Klamath  River  from  the  south  in  Del 
Norte  County,  has  its  name  from  the  Yurok  village  "Wohkel,  ' '  pepper- 
woods.  ' ' 

Wawona,  in  Mariposa  County,  is  of  unknown  origin.  It  does  not 
appear  to  be  Indian. 

Weeyot,  in  Humboldt  County.  From  the  current  name  of  the 
Humboldt  Bay  Indians,  Wiyot,  which  occurs  in  several  neighboring 
native  languages  in  this  form  or  the  variants  "Weyat  or  Weyet. 

Weitchpec,  in  Humboldt  County,  from  Yurok  Weitspekw,  a  spring 
in  the  Indian  village  of  Weitspus  at  the  confluence  of  the  Klamath  and 
Trinity  rivers,  now  called  Weitchpec  or  Wichpec  by  the  whites.  The 
meaning  of  Weitspekw  is  not  known;  that  of  Weitspus  seems  to  be 
"at  the  forks,"  since  the  Yurok  give  the  same  name  to  the  former 
Hupa  village  situated  at  the  junction  of  Trinity  River  with  its  south 
fork. 

Winum  Bully  Mountain,  between  Shasta  and  Trinity  counties,  is 
from  a  Wintun  original.  "Winum"  suggests  win,  the  Central  Win- 
tun  form  corresponding  to  Northern  Wintun  wintun,  "man,"  plus  a 


3'  Quoted  in  Bancroft,  Native  Eaees,  i,  455. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  67 

case  ending,  or  the  stem  win,  wini,  "to  see;"  and  "Bully"  is  holi, 
"spirit,"  appearing  otherwise  in  names  of  mountains  in  Wintun  ter- 
ritory, as  in  Yallo  Bally,  which  see.  The  meaning  therefore  is  prob- 
ably either  ' '  person 's  spirit "  or  "  sees  spirits. ' ' 

Wynola,  in  San  Diego  County.    Unknown. 

Yajome,  a  land  grant  in  Napa  County,  is  unidentified  and  there- 
fore probably  Indian.  The  derivation  from  Yayome,  from  Spanish 
ya  yo  me,  * '  already  I  me, ' '  supposed  to  mean  ' '  now  I  have  arrived, ' ' 
is  of  course  nonsense. 

Yallo  Bally  Mountains,  two  peaks  known  as  North  and  South,  be- 
tween Trinity  and  Tehama  counties,  are  named  from  "Wintun  yola, 
"snow,"  and  apparently  holi,  "spirit."  (The  "Wintun  o  is  open,  like 
English  a  in  "all").  The  belief  that  peaks  were  the  abode  of  spirits 
was  common  among  the  Indians  of  California.  The  element  holi  reap- 
pears, in  the  forms  Bally  and  Bully,  in  Bally,  Bully  Choop,  Winum 
Bully,  and  Un  Bully,  all  of  them  peaks  in  "Wintun  territory. 

Ydalpom,  pronounced  "Wydalpom,  in  Shasta  County,  is  from  a 
Northern  "Wintun  place  name,  in  which  wai-  is  ' '  north, ' '  -dal-  possibly 
means  "lying,"  and  -pom  is  "place." 

YokoJil,  in  Tulare  County,  is  named  from  a  Yokuts  tribe  called  in 
some  dialects  of  that  speech  Yokol  and  in  others  Yokod.  They  were 
neighbors  of  the  Kawia  where  the  Kaweah  River  emerges  into  the 
plain.  The  name  Yokol  is  not  explained  by  the  Indians,  but  suggests 
a  connection  with  Yokuts,  more  exactly  Yokoch,  meaning  "person" 
in  that  language. 

Yolo  County  is  named,  as  Maslin  says,  from  Yo-loy,  a  tribal  name. 
The  "tribe"  was  of  course  a  village,  of  the  Patwin  or  Southern  Win- 
tun, which  stood  at  Knight's  Landing  and  was  called  Yoloi,  or  more 
probably  Yodoi.  Maslin 's  and  Gannett 's  definition,  "a  place  thick 
with  rushes, "  is  at  best  approximate ;  if  that  is  what  the  "Wintun 
meant,  they  would  have  said  merely  "rushes,"  or  in  California  par- 
lance "tules. "  This  seems  a  reasonable  name,  but  available  "Wintun 
vocabularies  show  only  forms  like  hlaka  and  hlop  for  "tule,"  and 
nothing  resembling  yodoi.  Barrett,  Pomo,  294,  quotes  Miss  Kathryn 
Simmons  as  mentioning  a  chief  Yodo  at  Knight's  Landing.  Analogy 
with  other  cases  would  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  this  chief's  name 
had  been  applied  by  the  whites  to  his  people  and  his  village ;  but  Dr. 
Barrett's  Indian  informants,  and  the  author's,  know  of  yodoi  only 
as  a  place  name,  and  one  without  meaning. 


68  University  of  California  Puhlications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.       [Vol.  12 

Yontockett  School  District,  in  Del  Norte  County,  bears  an  unex- 
plained name,  which  seems,  however,  to  go  back  to  the  appellation  of 
an  Athabascan  Tolowa  village. 

Yosemite  is  Southern  Sierra  Miwok  for  ' '  grizzly  bear, ' '  as  usually 
stated,  though  like  English  "bear"  it  signifies  the  species  in  general 
and  denotes  a  "fully  grown"  animal  only  in  distinction  from  words 
perhaps  corresponding  to  "cub."  The  Indian  pronunciation  is  Uzu- 
mati  or  Uzhumati,  with  the  u  spoken  with  unrounded  lips.  The 
word  seems  to  have  been  applied  to  the  valley  by  Americans  either 
through  a  misunderstanding  or  from  a  desire  to  attach  to  the  spot  a 
name  which  would  be  at  once  Indian  and  appropriate.  The  statement 
that  the  tribe  owning  the  valley  were  known  as  ' '  the  Grizzly  Bears ' ' 
cannot  be  authenticated  and  is  probably  incorrect.  The  native  name 
of  the  principal  village  in  the  valley,  and  by  implication  of  the  valley 
itself,  was  Awani,  surviving  in  Ahwahnee,  which  see.  Barrett,  Miwok, 
343. 

Yreka,  in  Shasta  County,  for  either  the  spelling  or  the  pronuncia- 
tion of  which  every  literate  Californian  must  blush — the  word  is 
spoken  "Wyreka" — is  said  by  Powers,  243,  to  be  the  word  meaning 
mountain  and  the  name  of  Mount  Shasta  in  the  Shasta  language: 
wairika,  properly  waiika.  The  last  syllable  looks  like  the  Shasta  sub- 
jective case;  compare  Shastika  and  Shasta.  Wai-  means  "north" 
among  the  neighboring  Wintun;  but  the  idiom  of  these  Indians  is 
totally  different  from  that  of  the  Shasta,  and  the  resemblance  there- 
fore probably  fortuitous.  Dixon,  in  Bulletin  of  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History,  volume  17,  page  389,  1907,  confirms  Powers. 

Yuha  County  is  said  by  Maslin  to  be  named  from  Yuba  River, 
Spanish  "Rio  de  las  Uvas"  or  wild  grapes.  Uvas  became  Uva,  then 
Uba,  then,  in  American  mouths,  Yuba.  This  is  almost  certainly  an 
imaginary  derivation.  Yupu,  or  Yuba,  or  with  the  nominative  ending 
Yubam,  also  written  in  American  spelling  Yubum,  was  a  Northwestern 
Maidu  village  near  the  mouth  of  the  Yuba  into  the  Feather  River.^® 
The  name  would  apply  also  to  the  river,  as  according  to  Indian  cus- 
tom streams  commonly  bore  no  specific  appelation,  but  were  desig- 
nated, when  necessary,  by  the  names  of  the  places  at  their  mouths. 

Yucaipa,  in  San  Bernardino  County,  takes  its  name  from  Serrano 
Shoshonean  Yukaipa  or  Yukaipat,  a  place.  Kroeber,  Shoshonean,  134, 
Cahuilla,  34,  39. 


38  Handbook  of  American  Indians,  Bur.  Am.  Ethn.  Bull.  30,  part  ii,  1012. 


1916]  Kroeber:  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin  69 

Yulupa,  in  Sonoma  County,  near  Santa  Rosa.    Unidentified. 

Yuma  Reservation,  in  Imperial  County,  opposite  the  Arizonan  city 
of  Yuma,  is  named  after  the  Yuma  tribe,  the  occupants,  throughout 
the  historic  period,  of  the  vicinity.  The  origin  of  the  name  Yuma  has 
never  been  satisfactorily  ascertained.  The  Yuma  themselves,  and  the 
allied  Yuman  tribes  such  as  the  Mohave  and  Maricopa,  do  not  accept 
the  word  Yuma  as  native,  but  call  the  tribe  Kwichyana. 


UNIVERSITY   OF  CALIFORNIA   PUBLICATIONS- (CONTINUED) 

Vol.  7.      1.  The  Emeryville  Shellmound,  by  Max  Uhle.    Pp.  1-106,  plates  1-12,  with 

38  text  figures.    Jime,  1907  ..._ _ _ 1.26 

2.  Becent  Investigations  bearing  upon  the  Question  of  tlie  Occurrence  of 

Neocene  Itfan  in  the  Auriferous  Gravels  of  California,  by  William 

J.  Sinclair.    Pp.  107-130,  plates  13-14.    February,  1908  ..._ _.       .36 

3.  Porno  Indian  Basketry,  by  S.  A.  Barrett.    Pp.  133-306,  plates  16-30, 

231  text  figures.    December,  1908  „ 1.78 

4.  Shellmounds  of  the  San  Francisco  Bay  Eegion,   by  N.  O.  Nelson. 

Pp.  309-356,  plates  32-34.     December,   1909   50 

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36-50.    April,  1910  76 

Index,  pp.  427-443. 

VoL  8.      1.  A  Mission  Record  of  the  California  Indians,  from  a  Manuscript  in  the 

Bancroft  Library,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  1-27.    May,  1908  26 

2.  The  Ethnography  of  the  Cahuilla  Indiana,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  29- 

68,  plates  1-15.    July,  1908  _ 76 

3.  The  Eeligion  of  the  Luisefio  and  Diegueflo  Indians  of  Southern  Cali- 

fornia, by  Constance  Goddard  Dubois.     Pp.  69-186,  plates  16-19. 
June,  1908  - 1.26 

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Pp.  187-234,  plate  20.    August,  1908  J50 

5.  Notes  on  Shoshonean  Dialects  of  Southern  California,  by  A.  L.  ICroe- 

ber.     Pp.  235-269.     September,  1909 86 

6.  The  Religious  Practices  of  the  Dieguefio  Indians,  by  T.  T.  Waterman. 

Pp.  271-358,  plates  21-28.    March,  1910  80 

Index,  pp.  359-369, 

Vol.  9.      1.  Yana  Texts,  by  Edward  Sapir,  together  with  Yana  Myths  collected  by 

Roland  B.  Dixon.    Pp.  1-235.    February,  1910 2.50 

2.  The  Chumash  and  Costanoan  Languages,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  237- 

271.     November,  1910 .85 

3.  The  Languages  of  the  Coast  of  California  North  of  San  Francisco,  by 

A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  273-435,  and  map.    April,  1911 1.50 

Index,  pp.  437-439. 

VoL  10.    1.  Phonetic  Constituents  of  the  Native  Languages  of  California,  by  A. 

L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  1-12.    May,  1911 10 

2.  The  Phonetic  Elements  of  the  Northern  Palute  Language,  by  T.  T. 

Waterman.    Pp.  13-44,  plates  1-5.    November,  1911 46 

8.  Phonetic  Elements  of  the  Mohave  Language,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp. 

45-96,  plates  6-20.    November,  1911  66 

4.  The  Ethnology  of  the  Salinan  Indians,  by  J.  Alden  Mason.    Pp.  97- 

240,  plates  21-37.    December,  1912  — .     1.75 

5.  Papago  Verb  Stems,  by  Juan  Dolores.    Pp.  241-263.    August,  1913 25 

6.  Notes  on  the  Chilula  Indians  of  Northwestern  CaUfomia,  by  Pliny 

Earl  Goddard.    Pp.  265-288,  plates  38-41.    April,  1914 „ 30 

7.  Chilula  Texts,  by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.     Pp.   289-379.     November, 

1914 1.00 

Index,  pp.  381-385. 

Vol.  11.    1.  Elements  of  the  Kato  Language,  by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.    Pp.  1-176, 

plates  1-45.     October,  1912 2.00 

2.  Phonetic  Elements  of  the  Dieguefio  Language,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber  and 

J.  P.  Harrington.    Pp.  177-188.     April,  1914  10 

3.  Sarsi  Texts,  by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.    Pp.  189-277.    February,  1915....    1.00 

4.  Serian,  Tequlstlatecan,  and  Hokan,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.    Pp.  279-290. 

February,  1915  10 

5.  Dichotomous  Social  Organization  in  South  Central  California,  by  Ed- 

ward Wlnslow  Giflford.    Pp.  291-296.    February,  1916 05 

6.  The  Delineation  of  the  Day-Signs  in  the  Aztec  Manuscripts,  by  T.  T. 

Waterman.    Pp.  297-398.    March,  1916  1.00 

7.  The  Mutsun  Dialect  of  Costanoan  Based  on  the  Vocabulary  of  De  la 

Cuesta,  by  J.  Alden  Mason.    Pp.  399-472.    March,  1916  70 

Index  in  preparation. 

Vol.  12.    1.  Composition  of  California  Shellmounds,  by  Edward  Winslow  Gifford. 

Pp.  1-29.    February,  1916  30 

2.  California  Place  Names  of  Indian  Origin,  by  A.  L.  Kroeber.     Pp. 

31-69.     June,   1916   40 

3.  Arapaho  Dialects,  by  A.  L.    Kroeber.     Pp.  71-138 (In  press) 

4.  Miwok  Moieties,  by  Edward  Winslow  Gifford.     Pp.  139-194.     June, 

1916    : 55 


